Tag Archives: allstar

Events, Featured, Results

D2 Summit Winners, Scores, & Recap – Searchable

Posted on by Annemarie Arthurs
12
May
Annemarie Arthurs Cheer Coach blog

Annemarie Arthurs Cheer Coach blog

By Annemarie Arthurs

Published May 12, 2022

With the D2 Summit over, the 2022 All Star Cheerleading Season has officially come to an end! Huge congrats to all the teams this season! Whether you compete at Worlds, Summit, or D2 Summit, it’s a huge accomplishment to attend any of these prestigious end of season events! 

From day 1 to day 3, these teams fought the hard climb to the top! Some gyms came with one team while others came with five! It’s always amazing to see these D2 gyms from small towns come to these events with such strong teams! The owners, coaches, athletes, choreographers, and parents put in so much time and effort to be successful and it really showed this weekend! 

As a coach in Florence, SC this season, I decided to reach out to both programs here in town! They are both D2 gyms on either side of town, and they both made it finals, one with a first place Summit win! I interviewed Coach Brittany Durrah, Head Cheer Coach at Xtreme Athletics South, and Alex Devlin, Co-Owner of Athletic Cheer Force. 

Photo Courtesy of XA South

I asked Brittany, Coach of Xtreme Athletics Small Senior 1, Burn… “What was this experience like for you and how did It feel to move onto finals with your team for the first time”

Photo Courtesy of XA South

She said, “The experience at D2 summit was great! A much better experience from last year due to the safety regulations of Covid. Our team and parents were able to get the full Summit experience. Competing in the arena is a spine-chilling realization that you finally made it to the finish line! I loved the way we were able to get in person reveals for our teams moving on. The buildup was unreal! With only 6 teams being able to make it to day two we know it was anyone’s game with so many amazing teams. When the announcer said my teams name before they could even finish speaking our feet were off the floor! As a coach it was such a full circle moment. I can’t wait to see what next year’s teams are going to bring and for our team to surpass this year’s placement” 

I then asked Alex Devlin, who was also on their Senior Open Coed 4 team that won, “How does it feel to win the D2 Summit as a second-year program with your first open team?!”

She said “As a 2nd year program I never imagined winning summit!! Our athletes and coaches work so hard each day to strive for excellence. We have a true Cinderella story with this win. We advanced from the wildcard division in first and after semifinals we were entering into finals in 2nd. We knew it was going to be a fight as all the teams in our division are amazing. On finals day we had an athlete get injured at the start of our elite section. We had to completely stop the music and exit the stage. This athlete was center flyer and point in pyramid. We were given a new compete time and rallied together to teach one of our teammates her position. This athlete stepped up and learned some of the most difficult portions of this routine!! As nervous as we were we knew that we had the fight in us to go out there and put on a stellar performance! That’s exactly what we did!!! Air Force One is a team made up of coaches, college athletes and retired athletes. Our Allstar Director and Owner of the program even cheer on this team! We are beyond blessed to get to experience this and it’s even more amazing because we are a 2nd year program! I’m so thankful for my all-star director Lanell Timmons and Co-owner and husband Ryan Devlin as well as our choreographer Ty Rogers and stunt choreographer Patrick Smith! We will cherish this moment for a lifetime!”

I can’t wait to see how much both programs grow this season along with all the other D2 gyms that competed!! 

D2 Summit Winners Scores

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Events, Featured

Cheerleading Worlds 2022 Performance Order (searchable)

Posted on by Steve Pawlyk
Cheerleading Worlds Competition 2022 Performance Order
20
Apr
Steve Blog Circle

Byline Steve Pawlyk

Steve Blog Circle

Byline Steve Pawlyk

By Steve Pawlyk

Published April 20, 2022

Worlds is only 3 days away!

Verify your place in the performance order lists below!

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APRIL 23

Worlds Performance Order - April 23

APRIL 24

Worlds Performance Order - April 24

APRIL 25

Worlds Performance Order - April 25

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Featured, Tips

Chasing Perfection in an Imperfect Sport

Posted on by catweeden
Chasing Perfection__you hit zero_ipp cheer music
23
Aug
Cat Weeden Circle

By Cat Weeden

Published August 23, 2019

Allstar Cheer is a conundrum.

Allstar Cheer is a conundrum.

We are literally chasing perfection ( Zero Deductions/ a perfect 100 score) in an imperfect sport.  Yes, I can love allstar cheer with every part of me, and still say that this sport is imperfect and its questionable if it is moving in a direction that will solve any of it’s current problems. But that’s for another blog ☺ 

Some of the biggest imperfections with the current state of Allstar Cheer, in my opinion:

1. The rules of play are ever changing
2. Divisions are created and altered to solve perceived problems, but sometimes they create more problems
3. The rising cost of the sport is a barrier to entry and retention
4. Too much of our scoring, point deduction and legality calls are subjective and are without the proper balance and checks system that’s needed for accuracy and legitimacy

YouHitZero__Perfection_2

5. Until 1-4 are resolved, the disparity between small gyms and larger gyms will not lessen, but only continue to increase.
6. Politics play WAY TOO BIG of a part of ALL aspects of this industry. If you disagree with this, then feel free to stay in the Skunken place…. Cause being blissfully unaware is really a thing.

5. Until 1-4 are resolved, the disparity between small gyms and larger gyms will not lessen, but only continue to increase.
6. Politics play WAY TOO BIG of a part of ALL aspects of this industry. If you disagree with this, then feel free to stay in the Skunken place…. Cause being blissfully unaware is really a thing.

So if I’m saying that so much of allstar cheer is imperfect or broken, then the real question is how do we define “perfection” and how do we obtain it?

The answer to this question is going to be different for everyone. Some may define perfection as a win, a zero deduction routine, no parent complaints, happy teenage girls at practice, no drama, all accounts current ( we can only dream right?). I personally have defined it numerous ways over my career as a coach. Some of these ways ( like ‘Let’s win this event’) make you feel ultra fulfilled if you succeed, but incredibly hollow if you fall short. And most importantly there are factors outside of your control in this industry. You can only control your product, you cannot control what other teams do, or how judges judge creativity, routine comp or even the difficulty of your stunt sequence.

With all the factors you cannot control it is imperative that you focus on the ones that you can control. Take a step back and start focusing again on “The Experience” across the full season. Create or attend an allstar summer camp, find a sister/buddy team to create another layer to your season, choose competitions that offer more than just a bid, and enjoy every moment of your season as it happens.

Create or Attend a camp with other teams in your level or division

YouHitZero__Perfection_4

Last year the Small Cheer Gym Association held two allstar cheer camps in Tulsa at Luxe, one was for level 3&4 teams and the other was for level 5 teams. We came together, all helped coaches each other’s teams and spent 48 hours learning, bonding and breaking up the monotony that the summer time can be. Our kids interacted and made friends with kids in Texas, Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma.

The camp was helpful for skills, but more importantly, it created another experience that our kids will remember for a lifetime. Find some friends, pick a gym and do this! It was awesome

Find a Sister/ Brother Team for the Season

I will be the first to say I thought this was super dumb…. I'm not going to lie.

Just another gimmick that gyms/teams do to stay relevant on twitter or whatever. The idea of having a team across the country that you’re linked to didn’t make sense to me. But what did make sense to me was having a team we were around many times throughout the competition season as a buddy team.

We found this in Icon Cheer Lady Envy. The Lady Legend and Lady Envy kids bonded immediately at our Level 5 camp and continued to stay in touch throughout the summer and fall. Lady Envy’s Head Coach, Tabbi McCallister, and I are great friends, but we didn’t foresee the bond our kids would create. We are cheering each other on during warm ups, on the floor, after the event and during the week. When we struggled, they were there for encouragement, and vice versa. We will practice together at worlds, even got a matching shirt for the girls, and will plan a sister team retreat this summer for the two teams. The addition of a sister team added a whole extra layer to this season for our girls, and I am grateful for it!

YouHitZero__Perfection_7

Choose a Schedule that Celebrates the Experience

Competition scheduling can be very redundant. Over the last 3 years the only time we adjusted the schedule was in order to accommodate bid intentions/ allocations. The lack of value on the actual event, but the overemphasis on a bid to another event started sucking the life out of me and our families.

We decided to drop a couple local two day events, and instead went to JAMZ Nationals Vegas. And man, that event was the Ultimate Experience. #1 its Vegas , #2 The Closing Awards ceremonies were a complete production, like amazing, #3 for our elite teams there were no bids, we were just trying to win our divisions! 

YouHitZero__Perfection_1

Imagine that. #4 it was VEGAS! Our families didn’t even care what hardly happened at the competition, because the experience was enough. We will still attend bid events, but they will be attended because they offer something of substance to our families. Whatever your reasoning is for picking events, ask yourself “ what does this event offer my families, experience wise, other than just a bid”

Enjoy as Many Moments as Possible

Go to the parks at your end of season events. Talk about how special each one of your kid’s are at your end of season banquets. Encourage and appreciate all the new skills kids are getting around tryout time, instead of reminding them that a single skill doesn’t make them a specific level. Find a couple parents and let them know how much their words of encouragement have helped you. Connect, connect, connect.

This isn’t about retention; this is about connecting to the people that have believed in you. Make sure people know that this is bigger than just skills and wins for you. You know this is the case, but sometimes they need to hear it from you. And please take the team picture event when you don’t win the event, or place last. The experience of the event was great even if the final placements weren’t what you wanted. Give them a memory to look back on.

YouHitZero__Perfection_5

 

The imperfections of this sport can literally kill you on the inside, you owe it to yourself to find the joy and fun again. And you owe it to these kids to keep their focus on the aspect of this industry that you can control. At the end of the day you can compete the best routine you ever have done, and you still cannot guarantee a win! That’s just how cheer works. So stay keyed on the experiences you can navigate and create through your program. Families that buy into this will carry these experiences with them for life.

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