Dstewie wrote:

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Hi All please tell what the results are.  I heard there were many disappoinments and some really off judging.  Is this true?  How did it go? 

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I really do believe everyone is in absolute shock.  It doesn't seem like anyone wants to start typing about the event that we all just came from.   

I am truly just a mom talking here and having to sit tonight and explain to my daughter what had transpired earlier today is not easy.  Heck I am not even sure if I can give her the right answers right now.  I am still in shock.  

HOW IN THE HECK do you tell your daughter that her team just hit the cleanest routine they have ever hit all season and yet they didn't even PLACE!!!!   How do you explain to a mini aged cheerleader that has been bringing home top awards all season that you are dead last today?   Someone please explain it to me because I don't have the answers.  

Don't understand it and from my view point, just plain CORRUPTION and FAVORITISM.  I watched teams all day drop stunts miss their tumbling skills and they STILL were rewarded with 1st and 2nd place.  

AWEFUL!  and truly the most disappointing competition I have attended in a long time. 

disorganized, crazy warm up areas, ran late, whacked score sheets, local judges...all leads to a really bad competition. My teams will not attend another competition like this one again.

I forgot to add another fav....when Power Junior 5 hit those tick tocks!  Loved it!

thecheertruth wrote:

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just_a_mom wrote:

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Dstewie wrote:

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Hi All please tell what the results are.  I heard there were many disappoinments and some really off judging.  Is this true?  How did it go? 

---

I really do believe everyone is in absolute shock.  It doesn't seem like anyone wants to start typing about the event that we all just came from.   

I am truly just a mom talking here and having to sit tonight and explain to my daughter what had transpired earlier today is not easy.  Heck I am not even sure if I can give her the right answers right now.  I am still in shock.  

HOW IN THE HECK do you tell your daughter that her team just hit the cleanest routine they have ever hit all season and yet they didn't even PLACE!!!!   How do you explain to a mini aged cheerleader that has been bringing home top awards all season that you are dead last today?   Someone please explain it to me because I don't have the answers.  

Don't understand it and from my view point, just plain CORRUPTION and FAVORITISM.  I watched teams all day drop stunts miss their tumbling skills and they STILL were rewarded with 1st and 2nd place.  

AWEFUL!  and truly the most disappointing competition I have attended in a long time. 

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Welcome to UCA!  We have the same problems every year and the same favored team wins every year - you can't explain it, there is no rhyme or reason, it's just... well... UCA. 

 

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I'm still spinning this morning trying to figure out what happened yesterday.  I dont know what happened yesterday, judges must have not been paying att. through out the day. Seen many things happen yesterday that wow i cant even try to explain to my child. Work your hearts out  do a drop dead preformance ( i mean knock it out of the ballpark) then watch a team with tumbling faceplants, stunts come down, yet to recieve 1st place in EVERY divison they enter. mmmm can anyone guess who. 

 Take Sr. open level 3 for one..
 6 or 7 teams in this divison.    What a joke this was. Aerials & Airborne. You were both robbed. Clean routines awesome day from both squads. Hold your heads up your teams show major POWER in that divison. Not much you can do when your in a teams back yard.
I know ill probally get busted up on here for my words, but someone has to call it like they see it. The way I see it is. Not every gym has the opp. to bring 15 teams to a comp and that speaks loudly in this economy. So you have to keep them happy to make sure they keep coming back. Ive read on here that nobody likes to face that team. Now i truly understand what they ment. Its not that they cant be beat on the floor. (I've seen it happen in the last 3 comps. I've been to.) The worst is that when they do lose someone always protests but when they win one that they shouldnt have then they just sits back no words said. I would hope that our gym wouldnt attend any comps in the greater Sac. area if this team was going to be competing. I want my child to know that the best team that day will be rewarded not the biggest team with the MOST recognized name and owner.

One Athletics you guys rocked our socks off all day. Awesome teams you have there. Keep it up hope to see you again this year.

 

I am a coach that spent many hours behind the scenes warming up my teams yesterday. All along witnessing a certain coach ranting and raving about how the judges better penalize the teams that went against their teams. This very same coach manipulated the event producers to separate their divisions or not separate their division when it makes his teams look better. This happens at EVERY COMPETITION. San Mateo was a prime example what one individual can do to this sport. I have never seen the cheer politics before in my life but now it's out there and it's not a good thing to witness. Saw another cheer coach open their score sheets only to find out that her teams that were announced in last place that the order was announced in reverse and they should have really gotten 1st.

Senior 3 Open, Junior 3, Senior 4 Open was a joke! Teams from these divisions performed almost PERFECTLY! With absolutely little reward. Wait what am I saying here. There was not reward.

I'm tired of these home grown competitions where one or two gyms will score well because it's WHO YOU KNOW and NOT WHAT YOU KNOW.

It's is quite clear when these same teams travel to Southern California or even out of state does it become a level playing field for these teams and the end up returning to Nor California with their heads hung low because they got dinner served on a participation award platter.

I want to make this clear! It's not the athletes in these gyms its the politics the coaches are playing and it all needs to stop. the Athletes are working their you know whats off and they should be praised for their efforts.

JustaCheerFan wrote:

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thecheertruth wrote:

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just_a_mom wrote:

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Dstewie wrote:

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Hi All please tell what the results are.  I heard there were many disappoinments and some really off judging.  Is this true?  How did it go? 

---

I really do believe everyone is in absolute shock.  It doesn't seem like anyone wants to start typing about the event that we all just came from.   

I am truly just a mom talking here and having to sit tonight and explain to my daughter what had transpired earlier today is not easy.  Heck I am not even sure if I can give her the right answers right now.  I am still in shock.  

HOW IN THE HECK do you tell your daughter that her team just hit the cleanest routine they have ever hit all season and yet they didn't even PLACE!!!!   How do you explain to a mini aged cheerleader that has been bringing home top awards all season that you are dead last today?   Someone please explain it to me because I don't have the answers.  

Don't understand it and from my view point, just plain CORRUPTION and FAVORITISM.  I watched teams all day drop stunts miss their tumbling skills and they STILL were rewarded with 1st and 2nd place.  

AWEFUL!  and truly the most disappointing competition I have attended in a long time. 

---

Welcome to UCA!  We have the same problems every year and the same favored team wins every year - you can't explain it, there is no rhyme or reason, it's just... well... UCA. 

 

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I'm still spinning this morning trying to figure out what happened yesterday.  I dont know what happened yesterday, judges must have not been paying att. through out the day. Seen many things happen yesterday that wow i cant even try to explain to my child. Work your hearts out  do a drop dead preformance ( i mean knock it out of the ballpark) then watch a team with tumbling faceplants, stunts come down, yet to recieve 1st place in EVERY divison they enter. mmmm can anyone guess who. 

 Take Sr. open level 3 for one..
 6 or 7 teams in this divison.    What a joke this was. Aerials & Airborne. You were both robbed. Clean routines awesome day from both squads. Hold your heads up your teams show major POWER in that divison. Not much you can do when your in a teams back yard.
I know ill probally get busted up on here for my words, but someone has to call it like they see it. The way I see it is. Not every gym has the opp. to bring 15 teams to a comp and that speaks loudly in this economy. So you have to keep them happy to make sure they keep coming back. Ive read on here that nobody likes to face that team. Now i truly understand what they ment. Its not that they cant be beat on the floor. (I've seen it happen in the last 3 comps. I've been to.) The worst is that when they do lose someone always protests but when they win one that they shouldnt have then they just sits back no words said. I would hope that our gym wouldnt attend any comps in the greater Sac. area if this team was going to be competing. I want my child to know that the best team that day will be rewarded not the biggest team with the MOST recognized name and owner.

One Athletics you guys rocked our socks off all day. Awesome teams you have there. Keep it up hope to see you again this year.

 

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Thanks for the kind words.  It was still an awesome day for our gym. Our jr.3 co-ed has only been together 2 weeks, them kids really pulled it together. As for everything else all you can do is it leave it all on the floor. Awards dont matter as long as you know you did the best you can... everthing else is meaningless...  GO AERIALS!!!
i'm new to this so i posted our videos of our sr. open 3  and our jr. open co-ed 3 in another post. sorry but I am new..

 

It was really a train wreck the whole day. Theres not much more to say about it because from the completely unorganized and disrespectful staff, the merch store in the warm-up room, to having to share the tumbling mat(two ways)in warm-up??!!!......what else can you say??
HORRIBLE comp, sorry. But I am more sorry that I had to waste my time and my teams time with UCA.

UCA what can you say. We have stayed away from this orginization over the past few years because of all of the major gripes listed above. So we decided to give it one more try. I won't even touch on the placements. At least not right at this moment. It's typical of UCA, but let me get back to why we stopped going.

The staff is so RUDE from the warm up area and on... How can you treat paying customers so rudely. I have not experienced such nastiness and immature staff in a long time. Well several years since the last time we competed UCA. The event staff regional manager is rude. I'm sorry. Let me just be honest. The people running the warm up area WOW, i don't have a positive thing to say. We felt like we were bothering them. What a HOT MESS back there. I think they out did USA's negative rating in the warm up area. NO NOT ACCETABLE! Not a good look for UCA. You would think with the economy the way it is, that this orginization would treat their patrons kind and make this experience one so they will want to return. I HOPE THAT OUR GYM NEVER RETURNS TO UCA! It is time for other gyms to do the same. This is our money that we are spending for our children to have an enjoyable experience. If they favor a certain gym or program, let that gym support this competition. If you don;t like what is going on at UCA, STOP GOING! That is what our gym has decided to do and our owner will no longer give this orginization another penny of ours. We as parents have said enough is enough. 4 years ago when we were there it was the same thing. nothing has changed.

And it is not about winning. We are satisfied with our place (i guess) It's any teams chance on the mat that day. Do I feel like there is special treatment to some teams, yes... But that comes with the sport we are in. Judging is suggestive. Not bringing in out of town judges is just leaving the door open for unfair judging.

I do have to say I don't agree that just because your teams placed well all season you automatically deserve first place at this one. Again judging is suggestive. What is said at our gym, your first place that day is just that. It is for that day. We start all over again at the next comp to earn it again. For the mom who has to explain to her mini aged daughter why they didn't place and is so concerned over a team that has been doing well all season. That is sad if the only thing that is important to you is winning and not congratulating your girls on a job well done and their accomplishemnts no matter what place they get. Like the Aerials dad said, they know what they put on the floor was their best and that is what they are proud of.
However let me set the record staright about aerials junior 3.. this is not a new team that has been together 2 weeks.. lets be honest now. Those members are almot all crossovers from your senior open 3 team. But in any case they did an amazing job yesterday:)

I want to say POWER has an amazing program and what they strive to put on the floor is always the best. I don't know is they didn't necessarily deserve 1st place in senior open 3. Again suggestive judging and UCA judging style is just different. Maybe they met their requirements and style. I do know that senior open 3 and senior open 4 teams are all amazing. Every single team. There were some major disappointments when it came to placements, because we have seen those teams excel all season. But you best believe they will be back at practice making sure they don't leave any questions next time
Well done to all the teams.
I loved swats new uniforms with the black and white, that team did great. I was super impressed with pyramids open 4 this time around. As always one athletics was like WOWWWEEE loved all their teams. I LOVE LOVE UCF senior open 4. Airbornne senior open 3 AAAAAAMAZZING!!

-- Edited by Simply a cheermom at 22:05, 2009-02-22

Being out of state, I obviously didn't see this competition and what happened. 
However, I will say this.  We recently attended a UCA competition, and we thought our teams could have done much better on the floor.  They did stuff that was a one time thing, totally out of left field.  It was nothing major, but we did have a mistake in the transition and the stunt did not hit the first part (an extension) but caught back up completely in the stretches, perfectly on time.  As a coach, I watched other teams in the division hit clean routines, doing stunts that were an entire level below our division.  But, because of mistakes I really assumed the worst.  To my surprise (trust me, it was a surprise) my kids ended up coming in first. 
I'm not sure about the score sheets they used, but at our competition just the difficulty in your routine was worth about 45 out of 100 points.  This difficulty score had zero to do with whether your stunts actually hit, or the execution of the skillls, but more just if they are in your routine or not.  Execution was looking for over half of the team doing the skills.  We got full points because 4 out of 5 groups hit the extension. 
Looking back on the videos, do I think my kids deserved to win? Yes.  The routine they did was maxed out for their level, and they were going against teams that had nowhere near the skills they were doing.   Do I think this scoring is fair?  No, not really.  I see why it is in place, but I do not think it always works out for the best.  It's just another reason for a universal score sheet.  :)
I'm sure that this competition was a mess, if it was anything like the one we went to.  The warm up room was run horribly, the staff was more concerned about their lunch than watching the teams, and don't even ask what it cost me to bring my family that was visiting from out of state to the competition.  A competition that was over by noon nonetheless. 
As a cheerleader, I loved UCA for their camps and always loved going to their competitions because they had clothes to buy and they always seemed fun.  As a coach, I dread ever having to bring my teams back.  There are way too many options out there.  Why would I bring my kids to UCA when I can bring them to Jamfest, which will run like clockwork and won't cost my families over $50 just to get in?  It's not even a question.