Hellcats!

Uh-oh. I think I've found a new guilty pleasure.

You have to understand, I don't watch TV. The last series I followed was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it's been off the air for seven years. Between work and finishing up my second master's degree and ferrying my daughter to Girl Guides and youth group at church and cheer practice or dance practice or piano lessons or whatever she was doing that year, TV just has not been a priority.

But as I read the newspaper this morning, the review of "Hellcats" caught my eye. A cheerleading drama on the CW (same network that brought us Buffy for several years). Hmmm.

One review I read called it "Bring It On" from Missy's perspective. Not a bad take; a farmer gymnast who needs money to continue her pre-law university education tries out for a spot on a squad that comes with a full scholarship to replace a regular member who's been injured. Wackiness ensures. You gotta know, although I'd loved watching cheerleading in high school and on ESPN broadcasts of competitions, it was "Bring It On" that really hooked me on this sport.

So I watched it (well, the last 40 minutes after I got home from my meting and got the offspring to bed). It was silly and trite and I so don't have time. I'm afraid I might be hooked.

On the other hand, it was inspirational enough to have me doing squats and tricep dips in the commercials. That's gotta be a good thing, right?

Right?

Parent Cheerleader without a cheerleading kid

My daughter has decided not to continue with cheerleading this year, but instead to try musical theatre classes, where she will learn acting, singing and dancing. I'm happy that she's found something she will enjoy, and that she may actually be better at.

But it's gonna be weird being a part of a cheerleading team when she's not.

Not all of the members of our "parents" team are parents of cheerleaders; in fact, some in the past haven't been "parents" at all, just adults who wanted to cheer but not at the advanced levels of the open team, with all the competitiveness that involves.

Part of the reason I joined the parents team, besides that it looked fun and was great exercise and a super stress-buster, was to make sure that I wasn't going to live my cheerleading dreams vicariously through my daughter. I wanted to be sure that I wouldn't push her to continue past the point where she enjoyed it, just because I enjoyed it. Lots of parents do this to their kids, be it through cheerleading, or hockey, or yes, musical theatre. I've never thought it was fair.

So I'm glad she felt free to go in a new direction, one that I won't be following.

And I'm glad that I feel free to continue to cheer, for all the right reasons.

But I am going to miss the bonding that we had, doing this together, competing at the same competitions, going to open gym and working out together. I'm going to miss her companionship through the process.

And yeah, it's gonna be weird.

Taking the summer off

Cheerleading is the only sport I know that is truly year-round.

We participated in the national championships the second weekend of May. There was one last week of practices. Then the following week, while there were no practices, there was the year-end banquet (see my last post). The week following that, there were workshops to help athletes learn the cheer and dance that they will need for the tryouts for the coming year. Then this week, there are the tryouts themselves. Practices start a week later.

I know that the coaches say that people can be away once in a while over the summer, and that they take a more relaxed approach to summer practices. But given the incredibly strict attendance policy from September through May (you can miss two practices for any reason besides illness or family emergency), the fact that there is no break at all, even for the athletes who are 6 and 7 years old, seems a bit much.

These are kids! They are still exploring what they want to do. In the summer, some families go away for the whole summer. Some kids play soccer or T-ball or lacrosse or cricket. Some go away to summer camp. And all of these activities will result in kids who are more well-rounded adults.

Let's face it, the job market for professional cheerleaders is pretty small, and when I say "cheerleader" here I'm not talking about the pom-pom girls that are employed by professional sports teams. Our kids are involved in this activity for four reasons: physical activity, fun, teamwork and to learn to work hard to achieve goals. Even future NHL stars take a summer break for a while!

So give us all a break: the coaches, the parents, the athletes: close down for a month. That's all, one month. Yes, you'll probably still end up with some families who need to be away at some other time. But I'd bet you'll end up with athletes who are super-excited to be back and raring to go for the next competitive season, and parents who are equally excited to support them. Instead, we get grumpy people and kids exhausted after a full day of activity at day camps who really aren't ready to do their best at practice in any case.

I will attend the optional parent cheer classes when I'm around this summer. But my daughter who is now 10 has decided to take the summer off. There is a (albeit slim) chance that if she decides to return in September, there may or may not be a spot for her on a team. But she has decided that it's worth it not to have to be so rushed through the summer, to take a break. And I agree.

End-of-year Awards

Our gym's year-end banquet was last night. There were "athlete's choice" awards, where everyone had been encouraged to nominate, and then vote for, our favourite athletes from the gym in a bunch of categories (jumper, flyer, dancer, etc. and overall athlete in various age categories). That was fun, although I think setting things up so that people could only vote once would have been better. I'm pretty sure the technology is out there.

Each team was recognized, and then there were awards from the coaches for the most improved, best jumper, best dancer, most spirited, leadership, etc. awards on each team. Each team's "Ultimate Athlete" gets a bright yellow T-shirt they can wear to practices next year instead of the regular practice T-shirt.

Now here's the thing. I get that this is a skill-based activity, and I appreciate the recognition given; that's really important in a sport like this. (I got "best jumper" on the parent team, got a medal that says so! who me? woo hoo!)

But maybe the other coaches could have taken a page from our parent team coaches, and come up with some more categories so that everyone on the team could get some kind of certificate: "always smiling," "best sense of humour," "best attitude," "most ready to help out" or stuff like that. These didn't need to be announced to the whole banquet (that would take forever!).

See, I went home with a very sad little girl last night because, even though her coach had told her all year she appreciated my daughter's leadership on the team, she did not receive the "leadership" award. She went home with nothing. Other kids at her table got trophies for athletes' choice awards, her mom got a medal, she got nothing.

I know how busy these coaches are. But I also know that not every kid in cheerleading is going to be a star athlete, and for those who aren't, different kinds of motivation may be needed.

The thing is, the coaches for the most part are people who always have been star athletes. They were naturally good at this when they were very young, and got better and better as they got older. My daughter's coach has been on the Canadian national team since it began. And I'm just not sure they "get" the kids who aren't ever going to be that, who participate because this is fun and who feel badly when the only qualities that are "officially" recognized are ones they may never get.

One of the coaches of our parents' team has told us several times that she was never an athlete in elementary and high school, that she did a bit of dance but that was it. And I suspect that experience is what led her to the creation of all those "extra" awards for us. She knows the experience of not being a star athlete, and understands that there are other reasons we participate in this sport.

I wonder if all the coaches really do get that, or understand how to use those other reasons to continue to motivate their young athletes to keep going.

Disqualified?!

So as I explained earlier, parent cheer teams "compete" in a "non-compete" division. That means that we are given scores, but no one knows what anyone else's score is, and at the awards ceremonies all the teams get a trophy, a "thanks for coming out" sort of thing.

Except in the Ontario Championships by Cheer Alliance this year, they didn't.

One of the teams was disqualified.

Until about two years ago, parent teams used to be scored and ranked like all the others, but this was changed because some teams were attempting stunts and tumbling sequences that event organizers feared were dangerous. Too much competitive drive, and people can get hurt. (Plus, as my coach last year said, "We're old We break easily.") Yes, we want to perform well, and push ourselves to improve, but after all, this is supposed to be fun.

For a time, the parent division followed Level 6 rules, in which almost, but not anything, goes. This has been changed, too, and the parent division now has its own set of rules about what stunts, etc. are and are not allowed. Again, to prevent injuries.

Our coaches this season told us months ago that they had received a letter from Cheer Alliance noting that they were now going to crack down on teams that knowingly performed illegal moves. (Such moves would be noted on the score sheet, so if you do it again, you are presumed to know that's what you're doing.)

Well, apparently someone did it anyway. And apparently they've been disqualified from competing for 18 months.

I suppose that some action had to be taken to show that they were serious. After all, what kind of an example is that parent team setting for their kids if they're flaunting the rules?

On the other hand, the coaches are really the ones responsible. I looked at the rules for the various levels, and although I've been cheering for two years now, I can't follow what it says, it's just too technical. I suspect that the same is true for the members of that team. And yet, it is the members of the team that are punished. Because, I bet, the coaches probably still have their jobs and, if that gym is like ours, are still coaching other teams, too.

If Cheer Alliance truly wants to give some teeth to their policy, hold the coaches responsible for their choreographic decisions; don't punish the athletes who truly can't be expected to know any better.

Watching the world championships

Three athletes from our gym, Ultimate Canadian Cheer, are members of the Canadian national cheer teams (two on the all-girl team, one on the coed). They were competing this weekend at the International Cheer Union's second annual world championships, and both teams placed first in the "Elite" (Level 5) division. I was able to watch all the performances (with a slight tape delay), interviews with the athletes, opening and awards ceremonies; they are still all available at varsity.com, and at cheerunion.org. May daughter (who is almost 10) and I were inspired by the power and athleticism, and it was wonderful for her (and, I imagine, young cheerleaders around the world) to see just how far she could progress in this sport. Like young figure skaters watching the Olympics and young hockey players the Stanley cup, this was a chance for the world to see the best.

Almost.

There is also an International Open Coed Level 5 team representing our gym competing in the International All-Star Federation's world championships, the Ultimate Canadian Cheer Jags. This competition took place this weekend as well, at the same location (Orlando, Florida) and with many of the same athletes competing (all three of our national team athletes are on the Jags, and that's pretty typical). Yet this is a competition I cannot see online, not without paying a $30 fee for the privilege. Eventually, of course, amateur videos will leak through to youtube, but it seems odd nonetheless.

You see, at least in Canada, the national team athletes are sent the routines by video and have to practice on their own for weeks before they finally are physically in the same place at the same time, for perhaps a total of three weeks in advance of competing. The All-Star Teams, by contrast, are practicing together for months, tweaking and honing every details of their routines. Their performance level tends actually to be higher than the national teams for exactly this reason; the same, incredibly gifted athletes, but teams that have had more time to prepare together, and cheerleading is nothing if not a team endeavour.

I appreciate that putting on these events is an enormously expensive undertaking. Each of the athletes on the Jags had to raise $2,500 on their own to travel and compete in the IASF World Championships. Yet it strikes me as short-sighted not to offer the same video coverage to the IASF Worlds as to the ICU Worlds. Aspiring athletes don't see the best of the best compete, and that is disappointing.

If the IASF website easier to navigate to follow the results (and the logic behind the results including, for example, why a 12th-ranked team advances to the finals when a 5th-ranked team does not), this would be somewhat less critical. But it's not.

I suspect that were the cost of seeing the videos brought down, to say, $5, they would sell many more viewerships. I suspect, more, that if they entered into an agreement with Varsity TV, that their fan base would grow even further.