Category: Spirit

August is here and brought some major investigations with it. Nfinity and Famer Debut Virtual Interactive Training App via Yahoo! Cheerleading Has a List of People Banned From the Sport. It was Missing 74 Convicted Sex Offenders via USA Today. Cheer Empire: A For-Profit Company Built Competitive Cheer, Pays People Who Make its Rules via…

August was a little slow, but with school resuming for many it wouldn’t be a surprise if things start to pick up. Report: Cheerleaders, Mascots Not Allowed on Field at 2020 NFL Games via SI.com. SEC Football: Bands, Cheerleaders Not Allowed on Field Amid COVID-19 Concerns via Tennessean. Jerry Preschutti In His 51st Year Of…

July was a little slow, but here are the public articles we found. There were also a couple article referring to a lawsuit or lawsuits filed against Varsity, USASF, USA Cheer, Jeff Webb and related entities that were behind paywalls. I Would Love to See it Recognised for the Amazing Sport That it is via…

Could and should events labeled as a “National Championships” be held to a higher standard? Ideally each Event Producer would have only 1 National Championship, but since it seems a little late for that should other standards be set. Something that comes to mind is requiring a multi-year history of 100+ teams attending the event, similar…

Welcome to the 2nd half of 2020. In late June the USASF announced the standings in their Worlds Divisions Points Championship and the 2020 Scholarship Recipients. Here’s some of the other news from June. 5 Pivotal Moments That Drove Rebel Athletic’s Success via The Challenger Project. Cheerleading Giant Varsity Brands Gets $185 Million in New…

Welcome to June. Both USASF & IASF have publicly posted their Divisions and Rules for the upcoming season, something USASF hasn’t done in a couple seasons. STUNT Receives Emerging Sport Recommendation from the NCAA’s Committee on Women’s Athletics via USA Cheer. USASF announced the Regional Advisory Board members for the 2020-21 season. University of Kentucky…

Another experimental thing I’d like to see some event try is switching panels after day 1. I don’t know that this is a great idea, but I believe it would be worth trying at some events. The apparent downside would be getting inconsistent scores across days when performing the same routine. I believe this is…

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When I sat down my plan was to write an article about how to get into judging, but I don’t have an attention span so my mind started wandering. As I thought about what to write I drifted from how to get into judging, to how I got into judging, to the journey to judging…

Since publishing Season Ending Update II a couple weeks ago the International Cheer Union (ICU) and IASF have cancelled their World Championships and Varsity cancelled the combined Summit event mentioned in that second update. To our knowledge there are no in person cheer or dance competitions remaining scheduled as part of the 2019-2020 season.

Welcome to May. We should be recovering from Worlds and starting the all level end of the year events, but instead most of us are still sitting at home. USASF cancelled Worlds 2020. IASF hasn’t announced a definitive plan, but is leaving the door open for having the event in conjunction with the ICU Championship…

Since publishing our Season Ending Update, USASF has announced Worlds 2020 is cancelled, but IASF is continuing to considering having the International teams compete in the fall with the ICU Championship. Varsity announced a “One of a Kind” Summit that will combine or replace The Summit, D2 Summit, Dance Summit, and The US Finals. The…

Execution wins. I’d really like to stop writing with just that, but I feel like some sort of explanation is expected. On most of today’s scoring systems the difficulty portion is outlined enough that it’s hard to separate yourself from other teams on that side of the score sheet. In All Star Cheerleading if a…

The past week contained several updates to end of the season events. Worlds (Update Page) Plan is to reschedule for late June Will provide update by Friday, April 24th Would consider virtual championship before being rescheduled to July or later Summit(s) (Update Page) Plan is to reschedule for late June Will provide update by April…

What a month! Here’s some of the news that is not related to the season pausing. Cheerleading in the UK: We’re Not on the Sidelines Any More via BBC. Black Girls Cheer: How a Mom’s Social Media Group Sparked a Movement via ABC. Cheer Shows Competitive Cheerleading Is Almost as Dangerous as Football. So Why…

Another experiment I would like see is programs judging their own divisions, specifically at an event like Majors with a few teams in high level divisions. I’d prefer to pay to hear the coaches of F5, Orange, Panthers, Senior Elite, and Shooting Star discuss and rank each team in the division in each category of…

About a week ago the season for many sports started falling apart. For me it started with several conference basketball tournaments announcing they’d be played without fans and picked up speed while watching an NBA game get postponed just before tipoff, after the players had warmed up. It spread quickly to other games and then…

In recent days I listened to a podcast that led me to the idea of treating each thing I learned as a building block, like a Lego. Each is a piece that isn’t that impressive on its own but can be combined with other blocks to make something impressive. I imagine the most blocks came…

At USASF and IASF, nothing is more important to us than the safety of the athletes, coaches, friends and families that attend our Worlds events. We are closely monitoring the potential impact the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), may have on upcoming Cheerleading and Dance Worlds events and will continue to make decisions based on recommendations…

February came and brought some major events including both NCA and UCA High School Nationals, Cheersport, and the beginning of NCA All Star. USA Cheer also announced the 2020 National Team representative for Hip Hop (University of Nevada Las Vegas), Jazz (Brigham Young University), and Pom (University of Tennessee). How Cheerleading Evolved From One Man…

When I started cheering, at least once I moved to the summer camp instructor and coaching side, “Perfection before progression” was a phrase I consistently heard. Although I heard it I don’t remember seeing it consistently on the competition floor. Fast forward about 20 years and I still hear coaches preaching it. I also feel…

January came and brought significant events like UCA & UDA College Nationals, Majors, NDA All-Star Nationals, and JAMfest Cheer Super Nationals. UConn Cheerleading Returns To National Competition via UConn Today. REVIEW: ‘Cheer’ Shows How Grueling Cheerleading Can be & Plenty to ‘Cheer’: New Netflix Series Goes Behind the Scenes via Madison.com. ‘Cheer’ Is An Incisive Look…

It’s time for another random idea. I’d like to see an event that already eliminates teams each round, like college nationals, which advances about half the teams, or Worlds, which advances 10 teams, give priority to teams that don’t drop. First guarantee advancement to any team without a fall. This means you and your fans…

Valorie Kondos Field presented Why Winning Doesn’t Always Equal Success as a TED Talk.

Welcome to 2020. Here’s some of the news to close out 2019. Kennesaw State Pays Former Cheerleader Tommia Dean $145K to Settle Anthem Lawsuit via ESPN. Netflix Orders College Cheerleading Docuseries From ‘Last Chance U’ Creator via Deadline. USA Cheer Announces 2020 US National Junior All Girl & Junior Coed Coaching Staffs and Regions via USA…