Last weekend was my first weekend at home since Thanksgiving. During my streak of 23 consecutive weekend on the road I worked 19 cheerleading competitions, attended 1 competition without working it, went to my parents’ for Christmas, watched Kentucky play in the Final Four, and judged Kentucky Cheerleading tryouts. For the most part I enjoyed it, but there were also times I wish I slept more. During this journey I judged events in Illinois, Kentucky, Virginia, Texas, Florida, Washington, California, Maryland, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, and Ohio, which I feel like gave me a pretty good representation of the state of competitive cheerleading in the United States at the All Star and collegiate levels. I didn’t have much involvement with High School events last season, but may revisit that next season.
I’ve written about several of my observations as the season progressed and plan on writing about my overall observations in the near future. Some of the things I know on a personal level are I need a break to ensure I have the proper perspective regarding last season and I’ll be cutting back on the number of events I judge next season. I also plan on returning to scoring occasionally instead of being a safety judge all season. I’m guessing each month I’ll take 1 weekend off and judge 3 events, scoring 1 and being the safety judge at 2, but I’ll figure that out later.
Miscellaneous
The Unified Score Sheet announced by JAM Brands and Varsity is not the same thing as the Universal Score Sheet being developed by the NACCC and USASF. Stay tuned…
The 2014-15 Age Grid and Rules can be found on USASFRules.com. In addition the deadline for submitting suggestions for the 2015-17 cycle has been extended through the end of May.
Don’t wait to register for the USASF Regional Meetings and NACCC Annual Meeting.
OverStretch – May 21, 2014
Andre J. Carter 
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