This segment has been cut and pasted from the "imissthexboards" site. I thought it was a great suggestion. The poster, a coach, sits on several cheer boards and is asking for support. Read it through, give careful thought and please give your thoughts:
The coach writes.....
I have pleaded to all four boards I sit on : The National Advisory Board, The Worlds Advisory Board, the NACCC Inaugural Board, and The National Rules Committee to PLEASE revamp the system :
My idea includes pooling all the $25,000 bid totals out there and putting on 10 regional events nationwide at no cost to the competitors. These tournaments would have every gym from the region in attendance. The Level 1,2 and 3 teams would call this their true Regional Championship. The top 8 level 4 and top 10 level 5 teams REGIONALLY would advance to 5 sectional tournaments. These events would cost athletes nothing...however the best 8 teams on that day would advance. The Sectional tournaments would play host to the best 20 Level 4 teams for the Level 4 Championships and that's where Level 4 would end...and the best 10 Level 5 teams out of the 20 there regardless of division would advance to Worlds where 40 TOTAL teams would be in attendance. The kids would compete by division for the World Championship.
Here are the perks to this plan:
1) We would all HAVE to seek competition LOCALLY and therefore grow the sport in order to make sure we could be one of our region's best 10. Local events would increase in number and travel costs to families would be GREATLY diminshed.
2) There would be something worthy to work for each year that was legitimate...Level 1, 2, and 3 teams would work to scale the path to regional victory...there could be as many as 40 Youth Level 2 teams at an event like this...getting 20th one year and then 3rd the next would be a true victory.
3) Cheerleading numbers would grow because parents could really rally behind THE day when its all on the line to move to the next step. There would be great accolade in advancing...even if your gym couldn't beat out the regions best two or three Level 5 teams...they could wrap their goal around being number 8, 9, or 10 and have a fixed path of success to work for each year...( maybe just moving on is the first goal the first year...and the next its to get 10th in Sectionals and make an appearance at Worlds ).
4) It would save SOOO much money on travel and create more money for event producers because we would all have to compete more locally ( Translation: If I didn't have to go to Indy and have families spend thousands on hotels and flights...I could compete 7 or 8 more times in NC instead of chasing teams so far away ).
5) Worlds can become what its supposed to be a gathering of the best of the best and attention can be focused on those teams who have reached that pinnacle in our sport. Is it really worth the thousands of dollars teams spend for an at large bid to get 37th at Worlds? Are families going to continue to spend THIS much money each season on allstar cheerleading?
6) Teams would develop the regional styles that made our sport so interesting in year's past. They are easier to judge fairly. For example, you can always tell a team that is from Texas or the Northeast due to their flair, or a team is from NC based on our impossible stunts and pyramids. These stylistic changes would become even more unique under this system...making worlds look less cookie cutter.
Something has to change...and it has to change now. If you coach or own a gym PLEASE come to the NACCC meeting Tuesday January 6th at the Westin Airport Hotel in Atlanta and get behind the power to move this industry on a path of growth.
Here's one intuitive response from the same board...
Much of what ***coach says could be workable with some tweaking. The only things I would personally be careful of is letting anyone else define what success is for me or my program. What success looks like/feels like to me, may not be the same for you. IMHO that is ok and is not a deal breaker. It is what makes it reasonable to have more than one program in a city, county or state...so people can choose the one that best fits them and their needs. One size/style does not necessarily fit all.
I like the plan as long as it does not force any gym to attend any competition. It has to be their choice. The comp company would have to sell it to the gyms to come and overcome any objections they may have, if that is at all possible. If they choose not to, then that would be their little red wagon as momma would say. If they are cool with that, who am I to argue that they should of been at such and such an event.
The other big issue is who gets to host these events? By that I mean comp company. In NC I am aware of at least 7 different competition companies. There may be many more. Some are aligned with Varsity; some JamFest and some independent. As it currently sits I see no mechanism for any of them to give up their customer base towards such an effort. That is another reason why I believe it has to be a type of change that companies can get behind without necessarily selling out if that is not what they want to do. Maybe rotate it yearly?
For certain teams, the only way you can prepare to go against the best, is to go against the best. There is no way that a minor league team can prepare the Yankees or Red Sox to face each other (just using it as an example). Nobody will prepare CEA for WC like WC or F5 for CA, or Stingrays for California like they can each other. That is something that would not be addressed by these changes at the local level. Plus I don't know if I would like being a "sparring partner"...rofl! This goes back to everyone has different ideas for success. To some gyms it is win Worlds and to others it is just field some decently competitive teams, even if they are not Worlds caliber. I don't want to build my teams from the top down but from the bottom up. So if that means I am not deemed Worlds competitive for a few more years because of that commitment to my vision, that is fine. That is a price I am willing to pay.
What it will address is establishing a sound system that hopefully will be free of some of the current issues that make the current system in need of being reworked. If it or anything else can do that then I am open to look at it. A trip to Atlanta wouldn't be a bad birthday present
In my opinion this is a great idea, especially with a few tweaks. I think that one issue is the fact that certain areas of the country have a more "concentrated" cluster of elite gyms...we're obviously talking the northeast, the south, and California. But states like Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, etc....(absolutely no offense to any teams in that area, perhaps I am just uneducated to the great gyms that exist there!) ....don't have the same calibur teams. So would the dividing into "regional/sectional" areas take that into account??
Bottom line, something like this NEEDS TO HAPPEN. Worlds has grown into a huge nationals, which is in some ways a lot of fun! It's so great to see everyone at one big competition. And obviously the USASF makes a ton of money off the event, which is why it may be difficult to convince them to like this new idea. But ask almost any kid or parent in the all-star industry, and most of them will tell you they think Worlds is too big and it's way too easy to get there.
It's still super prestigious to win at Worlds, but it used to be so highly regarded to even MAKE IT THERE! I would love to see the sport go back in that direction.
Bottom line this needs to happen, because everyone is always complaining about how you go to a competition and you only compete against 3 teams and there's 50 divisions. But it's not that there's too many divisions, it's just that every other all star program in the area just isn't there; they are competing down the freeway 15 minutes away. There's too many competitions to choose from. Every program is spread out. There needs to be some competitions where everyone is at.
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"Come on a flip your mind, to the west's BEST, built by design!!!!" PACIFIC COAST MAGIC ALL STAR CHEERLEADING
