With Regard To Cheer...everyone is getting it wrong!

There are two very similar races being run to determine governance over the gymnastic infused, acrobatic derived skill set of competitive cheer.   The race between the NCATA and USA Cheer towards NCAA status and the race between the IFC and the ICU towards SportAccord recognition.  Both the NCAA and SportAccord are the organizations that grant an official status and legitimacy to a group as a bona fide sport and governing body of that sport.  But it appears both are getting it wrong!

All you have to do is read the NCAA football sports page and you will see the vast corruption and financial issues the NCAA is facing with amatuer athletics.  Companies and inviduals have no place in amatuer athletics except as the sponsors.  The NCAA stands on this principal as an organziation.  Yet, the company backed USA Cheer application for STUNT to be a college sport with USA Cheer at the helm is getting some traction with the NCAA.  Even a non cheer person could see the connection between Varsity Brands and USA Cheer.  The executive director of USA Cheer is an employee of Varsity Brands.  The flip side is that the true non-profit group that orginally started the sport, the NCATA is made up of NCAA member institutions who already sponsored the sport on their campuses a whole year earlier.    These are university athletic directors and presidents that have developed this sport, not a for profit company.  There still aren't any institutions that sponsor a varsity STUNT team as a true athletic department varsity sport.  There are only cheerleading teams that compete in the STUNT format.  By the NCAA's own philosophy, shouldn't USA Cheer not even be in the conversation due to its painfully obvious relationship to the for profit industry?

The NCAA isn't the only group getting it wrong.  Internationally, an organization must be recognized by SportAccord as a first step towards world acceptance as an Olympic sport.  SportAccord is the organization comprised of most of the international govering bodies of sport.  When you talk about the format and blueprint for how a governing body is supposed to be structured, members of SportAccord and the IOC follow a high standard.  One that is not met my the varsity controlled ICU.  As a matter of fact, the ICU has dozens of member federations that aren't even recognized in their own countries.  Yet they claim to have over 100 member countries.  Quite a misleading statement when some members are nothing more than a local organization in that country who called themselves a federation and joined the ICU. 
SportAccord is getting it wrong just like the NCAA.  The IFC is the original and true non profit organization that was positioning itself to be the international governing body of cheerleading.  It follows the standards for an international governing body and is not owned and backed by a private cheerleading company.  The true interests of the IFC are to promote the sport of cheerleading for the development and well being it provides for the athletes involved.  Yet, SportAccord seems to be entertaining the ICU application for recognition equally as the IFC effort.  If the latest news reports are true (most likely just ICU media spin), then shame on SportAccord if they move one inch farther with Varsity Brands.... oooopppssss, I mean, the ICU.

If the ICU and USA Cheer become the official governing bodies of cheerleading nationally and internationally, it will be a sad day for the sport.  On the surface, the sport will have moved a step further, but the ominous issue is at what price and in what direction.  Under the foot of Varsity Brands there has been very little progress towards becoming a sport in the last decade or two of their market dominance.  Behind the push from the NCATA and IFC, suddenly the last couple years have brought a whirlwind of activty and movement towards becoming a sport.

The underlying point to be noted, is that nothing motivates a company like money.  There are two ways money motivated this situation.  When Varsity Brands dominated the American market, the next exploit was to expand oversees.  But other countries don't treat cheerleading as an activity like it is treated here in the US.  Instead, it's a quasi sport and is typically developed through a national federation for that sport that uses government funding to develop programs for youth and high school age students.  Suddenly, cheerleading couldn't be an activity anymore if it were to gain followers and develop in other countries.  It needed "officialness".  Thus, originated the plan to govern the world through the ICU and be able to develop growth and new markets in foreign countries.  The best way to legitimize an ambitious plan like that is to become the true international governing body for cheerleading and be recognized by SportAccord.  That would pretty much seal the plan.  Start with the US and make a national governing body there, USA Cheer.  That would be the Varsity controlled US representative to the ICU.  But when the NCATA started moving toward NCAA status as the US governing body for what is basically competitive cheer, USA Cheer had to either stop it or win the race.  The same battle developed internationally with the pre-existing IFC.

Again, the bottom line, is that control over the sport translates into the ability to monopolize revenue streams and market share.  That just doesn't sound like "for the greater good of the sport and the well being and development of the athlete."  This is precisely why the NCAA and SportAccord need to get it right.  That will be my Christmas wish!

The Cost of Acro and Tumbling

The NCATA's thought was, if it looks like a sport, acts like a sport and sounds like a sport...it must be a sport. So was born the idea of fitting the competitive cheer/gymnastics/acrobatic skill set into the mold of other sports and making sure it qualified by the Dept. of Ed and NCAA's standards for a sport. Here lies the deceptive appearance that Acro and Tumbling is an expensive option to choose.

All NCATA teams are fully supported true varsity teams at their respective universities. At the Div. I and Div II levels, the teams are supported by scholarships in addition to the financial, academic, medical and general support provided to all varsity teams in an athletic department. NCATA teams follow all NCAA guidelines and rules which prevent them from competing in non Acro and Tumbling meets, cheering for other teams at games or receiving monetary assistance outside the NCAA limits. If a team cheers at a game for another team, it is can not be defined as an NCAA sport and not eligible for the school to sponsor it as a Title IX/OCR compliant sport. If a team is not going to be Title IX/OCR compliant, a school is usually not going to sponsor it as a varsity sport. That's just the reality of college athletics. If a team competes in two different formats such as an NCATA meet and then a cheer competition, they will be breaking the rules and not Title IX/OCR compliant. Thus, again, a school would not typically sponsor an ineligible team as a varsity sport. If a for profit company was paying for a team's travel, donating uniforms and paying/waiving registration fees for them to compete, that team would be violating so many NCAA rules they wouldn't even be close to being Title IX/OCR compliant and thus, once again, not eligible to be claimed by the university as a compliant sport.  The point is that NCATA teams are the only type of team using this skill set that can be considered a sport at the collegiate level.  So examining the cost must include a comprehension that the cost is not just for a cheerleading team to compete, but it is the cost of sponsoring a true women's varsity sport.
NCATA teams are compliant and the same as any other women's varsity sport in their respective athletic departments. The average cost to start an Acro and Tumbling team is in line if not cheaper than other size comparable women's sports like rowing, rugby, track or swim/dive. There's scholarships, coaches salaries, insurance, medical support, academic support, equipment, facilities, uniforms, apparel, meals, strength training costs, travel and home contest costs. These are costs every athletic department understands are required to be provided for a varsity team. There is no other option to Acro and Tumbling that is treated as a true varsity sport/program at their university according to the Dept. of Ed/NCAA standards. If there were, those teams in that sport would have to follow all the same guidelines structurally, financially, academically and medically for sponsoring a varsity team. Any support less than that is not a varsity sport. Simply competing in cheer competitions is certainly much cheaper than actually becoming a varsity sport.  But if you compare the cost of actually becoming a varsity sport, the format or sport won't matter, THE COSTS ARE THE SAME.

Cheerleading teams are unquestionably cheaper to run, but they are not considered a sport. So having the cheerleading team still be the spirit squad and also compete as a true varsity team is not even possible by the rules.  The truth behind evaluating the cost of Acro and Tumbling is that you must compare a women's varsity sport to a women's varsity sport, not a sport to something that is considered a support group by the Dept. of Ed and the NCAA.  It's a mistaken case of comparing apples to apples and oranges to well...banana jumps.

Does the Female Atlete's Choice of Sport Matter?

As efforts continue to make acrobatics and tumbling a new NCAA collegiate sport, a recurring and important question arises that speaks to the NCAA, OCR and Title IX mission.  If part of the cooperative goal between these three is to create equal and new athletic opporunities for women in college sports, at what point did it stop mattering what sport female athletes want to play?
Acrobatics and Tumbling eliminates all the stereotypical trademarks of traditional sideline cheerleading and focuses the most athletic gymnastic and acrobatic elements around a head to head true sport format that meets the standard the OCR, NCAA and Title IX define for a sport.  That same skill set is used in all star, high school and college level teams throughout the US and around the world.  It has become a top 10 most popular high school girls sport and is one of the fastest growing sports around the world.
At double, triple and quarduple or more times the participation and interest rates among young girls than several other NCAA sports, why is there not more support to materialize this avenue of opportunity for female athletes. 

Acro and Tumbling Brings Unfamiliar Reality of College Sports to Cheerleaders

Unless an older sibling, family member or family friend has been recruited and offered a college scholarship to play a sport, most parents are unfamiliar with the ins and outs of collegiate athletics.  Particularly, parents of cheerleaders, who as a group of athletes are nearly never recruited and offered scholarships in the traditional manner of other sports, have no understanding of the scholarship process.  In the infancy of evolving a sport from the activity of cheerleading, there must be a learning curve for cheer parents and athletes to understand what it means to recieve a college scholarship to participate in a varsity sport at a university.
Many people have the idea that recieving a college scholarship means you get a "full ride" and everything is paid for.  The reality is far from that idea.  Out of just over 200 possible scholarships that can be given for all female NCAA sports combined, only 47 are automatic full rides.  That's 75% that are partial scholarships.
This introduces the first concept for cheer parents to understand about scholarships; the head count sports versus equivalency sports.  A head count sport means that the maximum number of scholarships the NCAA allows for that sport reflects how many full ride scholarships there are.  If there are 13 maximum scholarships allowed for a head count sport, then the 13 players on the roster recieving a scholarship are recieving a full ride scholarship.  For women's NCAA sports this is basketball, gymnastics, tennis and volleyball which represent the 47 of 205 scholarships available for all 22+ NCAA women's sports combined.
Every other sport is known as an equivalency sport.  This means that the total amount of scholarship dollars awarded to all athletes on that team can only be equivalent to the total value of the NCAA maximum number of scholarships for that sport.  For example, if a school's total cost is $25,000 for the year, then 1 full scholarship at that school equals $25,000.  In an equivalency sport, 5 athletes could each recieve a $5,000 dollar scholarship which would add up to the equivalency of 1 scholarship.  So if the maximum is 13 scholarships for that equivalency sport, then the coach could divide up (13x$25,000) and split it however they want amongst the athletes on the team.  The sport of acrobatics and tumbling is an equivalency sport.  As with all the women's equivalency sports such as softball, soccer, rowing, ice hockey, track, swimming and diving, the vast majority of athletes are on partial scholarships.  This is the reality of over 75% of all female collegiate athletes.
In addition to understanding the type of scholarships that are awarded in collegiate sports, each institution has its own policies on the length or gaurantee of those scholarships.  The NCAA has had a one year rule in place since 1973.  Institutions only have to gaurantee the scholarship for one year at a time.  Past that minimum, every school or coach can develop their own policies or offer longer scholarship gaurantees.  It is not uncommon in equivalency sports that a coach may not renew scholarships or even reduce them if the athlete is not meeting expectations.  Again, each school and coach will have their own policies to determine who gets their scholarship renewed and the amounts may increase or decrease.  The athletic departments will typically have some rules in place to protect student athletes and make sure they are getting every opportunity to succeed.  While it may not be uncommon to not renew a scholarship, it doesn't mean it is a regular practice among schools to do so.
With regard to the average cheer parent and cheer athlete, this is important and very new information that can be a little shocking to adjust to.  Particularly because cheerleading is an activity and every team gets a shot.  In sports, not every team gets a shot.  If you don't qualify for the next level, your season is done.  This same principle is inherent in how athletes are awarded scholarships.  In collegiate sports, you are rewarded for your talent and performance.  Not every kid just gets to sign up and be on the team.  There may be walk ons and non scholarship athletes on the team, but they earn their spots and have to continue to earn them over the course of their collegiate career.  Some may eventually be awarded scholarships and some never do.  Some scholarship athletes may earn increases or go the opposite direction based on performance or other factors.
The idea that an athlete could make the team, but not really be a starter is a new concept for most cheer people.  In the all star or even the scholarstic cheer world, if you make the team, you are in the routine.  Acro and tumbling is a sport that has starters, specialists/role players and like all other sports, the developmental athletes who may never see almost any playing time.  Those athletes may have just never progressed or may have regressed in abilities.  Unfortunately, there will be times when the coach will have to evaluate the athlete's contribution to the team against a further investment in that athlete, distributing those dollars to reward a move valuable athlete or begin an investment towards and incoming new athlete.
Of course, not every athletes is under the gun to loose their scholarship every year.  The majority of athletes improve year to year and develop experience and leadership qualities that make them more valuable than even incoming athletes who are more talented.  It is just as much the responsibility of the athlete to take advantage of every training resource and improve their skills as it is for the coach to provide an environment and the opportunities to do that.  Typically is it only in extreme cases of regression, character or academic circumstance that a scholarship is not renewed.  Even injured athletes usually have the opportunity to recover and reestablish themselves.
The reality of scholarships is not a negative one.  It is a tremendous advantage that creates opportunity for not just the athletes involved, but also for the entire family.  The cost of college can be a limitation or even deal breaker without financial assistance.  The benefit for a family that doesn't have to come up with $25,000 dollars a year is an obvious one.  For coaches, the opportunity to reward curent athletes as well as new ones is one of the most satisfying moments during the season.  The joy from an athlete when a coach says, "I want you and here's what I want to give you to get you here," is a wonderful thing to experience.  Life as a scholarship varsity athlete is undboutedly a very different and enhanced experience compared to nearly every other student on campus.
Currently, ONLY acrobatic and tumbling teams offer scholarships and status as varsity athletes that include the full support of the athletic department.  All NCATA member schools follow the full gamut of NCAA regulations for a sport including the way scholarships are awarded each season to each athlete.  Unlike any form of cheerleading at the scholastic, recreation or club level, the new sport of acro and tumbling will require parents and athletes to adjust to college athletics.  The hope of every serious competitive cheer athlete is to get a scholarship to compete for their favorite university.  The NCATA is marching towards making that hope a reality through NCAA emerging sport status, however, it does mean a departure from the pay-to-play inclusive nature of the activity of cheerleading.  This is college sports and a spot or scholarship given, will also have to be earned.

The University is At Risk. The Insurance, the NCAA and Covering (lack of) Cheerleaders

In the landscape of intercollegiate athletics, the NCAA does not provide direct governance, regulation nor safety standards for cheerleading.  In spite of the increasing risk factors involved with the skill set utilized by cheerleading teams and the high rate of catastrophic injury those athletes, the NCAA has ignored part of its primary purpose with regard to safety of its member athletes.  It should be expected that the NCAA would recognize this extraordinary risk position and actively engage an avenue of leadership in developing more comprehensive safety, liability and skill-based education programs for coaches, athletes and awareness for administrators.  The NCAA continues to demonstrate its deficient interest in the very group of athletes that fly, jump, flip and simply just stand for the same sportsmanship and leadership at the core of the association’s stated values.   This is transparent through their unwillingness to accept responsibility over the sport-like activity of cheerleading.  While engaging the cheerleading industry leader for guidance appears to be a sound course of action, it should however, be limited to an advisory role.  Instead, this relationship has led to the only instance where intercollegiate athletic department teams are governed and regulated by for profit industry.

NCAA Cheerleading Safety InitiativeThe NCAA has partnered with Varsity Brands, the parent company of the largest national cheer organizations, to undertake an important cheerleading risk management initiative with a goal of enhancing safety for college cheerleaders. As a first step in this initiative, effective August 1, 2006, the NCAA's Catastrophic Injury Insurance Program includes a new requirement in order for an institution's cheerleading program to be included as a covered event under the policy.The new requirement states that cheerleading activities must be supervised by a safety-certified coach or advisor. While there are choices among certifying organizations, the NCAA has partnered with, and recommends the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators (AACCA). AACCA offers certification courses year-round at sites across the country. Once completed, the safety certification remains in effect for four years.

Insurance for cheerleading programs is currently provided in 3 levels by this partnership with NCAA, Varsity and Mutual of Omaha.

NCAA Catastrophic Insurance (NCAA Insurance)Varsity Catastrophic Insurance (Compete Insurance)Varsity Expanded Insurance (Everything Else Insurance)

“NCAA Insurance”

The NCAA Insurance is the same package that all other NCAA athletes are covered by during the course of their participation.  This coverage is only extended to athletic department sponsored teams.  This would not include student organization teams that cheer at games or club teams that participate in intercollegiate events.  The team must be sponsored (supported financially/benefits) by the intercollegiate athletic department.

Teams are ONLY covered under the following conditions/requirements:

·         The coach/advisor is certified by a formal credentialing program for safety

·         The coach/advisor is designated by the university as such

·         The coach/advisor is NOT a student coach, current member of the team or a full-time undergraduate student

·         The activity must be supervised by that designated coach/advisor

·         Covered activities ONLY include NCAA sport team competition, practices for those events and pep rallies

·         Coverage does NOT include alumni events, fundraisers, camps, clinics, competitions or the practices for those events.

Performances, appearances, alumni events and other university based functions are a standard expectation of duties an athletic department might have for its spirit squad.  These activities are clearly not covered by the NCAA’s Catastrophic insurance program.  It is safe to conclude that the overwhelming majority of NCAA institutions do not have sufficient catastrophic coverage given their participation in activities other than cheering at games, pep rallies or the practices for those events.

OF NOTE:

·         NCAA requires safety certification, but not specifically AACCA. 

·         NCAA itself does not make any rules or require that you follow AACCA rules.

o    It’s insurance that actually says they won’t cover you if you do certain skills

“Competition Insurance”

The Varsity Catastrophic policy is coverage for competitions, camps and clinics.  This “gap” insurance is an additional coverage that was negotiated by Varsity Brands through their insurance broker Menard Gates and Mathis.  Menard Gates and Mathis works with insurance mediator American Specialty create a policy for AACCA that is underwritten by K & K Insurance.

The “Competition Insurance” covers ONLY the following situations/requirements:

·         Attending ONLY Varsity Brands camps, clinics and competitions

·         Travel to and from these activities.

·         DOES NOT COVER practices for these events

Competing is an integral part of the collegiate sideline experience for many of the highly skilled athletes participating on collegiate teams.  As the high school and club level development of the sport creates a higher focus on the advanced skills sets and competitions, those athletes expect to compete as well as cheer.  It is not unreasonable to accept competition as part of the expectations an athletic department might have for its team.  Unless an institution has specifically purchased additional insurance for competitive events, camps or clinics, the team would have to have the “Competition Insurance” in order to be covered.

However, this coverage is not without its holes.  Practices for these camps, clinics or competitions are not covered.  This can be a tricky situation prior to the end of the NCAA basketball regular season.  In this time period, teams could purport to be practicing for performances at games which, fall under the NCAA Catastrophic insurance.  Since the removal of certain skills from the basketball court, it becomes important that the skills being practiced are reflective of the skills allowed to be performed at games.  With the additional specifications of half-time or post game performances for mat-requiring skills, routines involving these skills should have future scheduled performances in order to justify those skills continuing to be practiced.  This is a gray area.

Another area of interest is the conflict of principles with the NCAA and Varsity Brands.  The NCAA requires a safety certification for the coach, but is very specific to point out that there are choices for that certification.  However, the “Competition Insurance” coverage only covers Varsity Brands events and not all camps, clinics and competitions in general.  Furthermore, Varsity Brands requires an AACCA certified coach for teams attending their events.  In essence, they have usurped the NCAA’s intention to remain open to other certification organizations.

“Everything Else Insurance”

This insurance is the Varsity Extended Coverage plan.  It is also brokered by Menard Gates and Mathis.  This insurance plan is the second additional policy available to a cheerleading team on top of the NCAA Catastrophic plan. 

Coverage applies ONLY to the following situations/requirements:

·         Student cheerleaders that are a part of the school’s official team.

·         Must be registered for a Varsity Brands camp, clinic or competition.

·         Athletes are covered during participation for any performances, alumni events or other activities that are not directly related to the Participating School’s intercollegiate athletics program

·         Athletes are covered during practices for Varsity camps and competitions.

o    Coverage of practices for competitions begins 5 days prior to the beginning of fall term and ends the last day of the spring term.

o    Coverage of practices for camps begins 5 days prior to camp and ends on the first day of camp.

·         The activity must be organized and supervised by the official coach/advisor of the institution.

o    The coach/advisor must be certified by AACCA.

o    Activity must follow AACCA rules.

In the course of a season, the cheerleading team will commonly engage in on campus and community events unrelated to the intercollegiate athletics teams they support.  This is a normal expectation the athletics director would have for the program.  The “everything else” coverage insures athletes during these activities.  It also bridges the gap in coverage of practices for competitions.  The continuously identified miscue is the NCAA’s dependence on private industry to provide governance and safety to the highest risk factor activity on college campuses.  In addition, in order for a team to be properly covered for the activities that are common to a team’s season, including competition, the sponsoring institution must purchase two additional policies through Varsity Brands.  These policies force coaches to take the AACCA certification instead of having a choice as the NCAA states and intended.  Nearly to a negligent level, the NCAA ignores the fact that the same company that monopolizes the “collegiate national championships” for cheerleading is also limiting insurance eligibility to only their own events.  They further exploit universities by requiring that a team must attend at least one camp, clinic or competition with Varsity Brands to be eligible for the protection.  While an institution can purchase their own individual insurance to address their cheer teams’ activities, it doesn’t excuse the NCAA’s conscious lack of providing safety for cheer athletes.

The advantage of the “everything else” insurance is the time period that it covers.  Definitive language identifying the start date and the end date create a term which allows teams to be covered in the gray areas created by the NCAA insurance and the “competition” coverage.  For example, a team finished with the basketball team’s season, but who is still practicing skills for competition, can still be covered under the “everything else” plan.  The gray area that is not covered, and not actually all that gray, is being out of season (athletic team’s season is over) and practicing for competition, but compete in a non Varsity Brands competition prior to a later Varsity Brands competition.  It would be impossible to be prepared for the non Varsity Brands competition without devoting some portion of mental and physical preparation to that event.  Thus, there must be a partial if not complete percentage of liability attributable to preparing for the non Varsity event which does not qualify for the “competition” insurance.  This would be an exposed area of risk for the institution in a lawsuit.

The Short of it All

Under the NCAA catastrophic policy (NCAA insurance), teams are only covered at games, pep rallies or practices for those activities as long as they are organized and supervised by official coaches/advisors of the university that are certified by a safety credentialing organization.  Travel sponsored or reimbursed by the institution to and from those events is also covered.

Under the Varsity Extended Plan (compete insurance), teams are covered when participating in Varsity Brands camps, clinics and competitions.  In order to participate in those events, Varsity Brands requires the coach/advisor be AACCA certified.  Thus, the coach’s choice of safety certification programs is eliminated.  The coverage also extends to sponsored travel to and from these events.  Note that it does NOT cover practices for these or other events.

Coverage under the Varsity Catastrophic Plan (everything else insurance) covers all activities not directly related to the intercollegiate athletics teams.  As long as those activities fall within the defined season and are organized and supervised by an AACCA certified coach.  The team must also have registered to attend a Varsity Brands event.  This plan covers the practices for competitions or other events within the defined season as long as the event itself follows AACCA guidelines for safety and is a Varsity Brands event.

A team with only NCAA insurance:
--liable when participating or practicing for anything other than a game or pep rally
                -Should have a halftime or post game performance scheduled with the athletic department in order
                  to be covered after football season.  With the limiting of certain skills to half-time and post-game, there
                  would be no reason to perform those skills in preparation of a game
--Outside of the season of the teams they cheer for, there is no situation the cheerleading team would be
    covered, including tryouts.

A team with NCAA insurance and the Compete insurance:
--liable when practicing for any non Varsity Brands competition, camp or clinic.
--liable when practicing for covered or non covered camps, clinics or competitions, if there are no halftime or post
   game performances scheduled and you are in basketball season. 
--Football season has more leeway because grass surfaces allow for more of the competition oriented skills to be
   performed at games.  The exception is twisting basket tosses.

A team with NCAA insurance, Compete insurance and Everything Else insurance:
--Is  still underinsured if they practice or participate in any non Varsity camps, competitions or clinics.
--potentially liable for any practices prior to the beginning of the first day of classes if the skills being worked on are not “game day” skills, i.e. twisting basket tosses.  In this situation, the Compete and Everything Else insurance are not in effect and the NCAA insurance probably wouldn’t cover a twisting basket injury because it’s not an allowable skill 95% of the time under NCAA insurance.

The Freedom of Acro and Tumbling

You have to look long and hard to find a sport that allows one coach to choose the plays for the other team.  You will have to look even harder to find a sport where each team does exactly the same thing as the other team for 75% of the competition.  Better yet, find me a sport where you learn your material from a video made by the competition producers of the sport.  Put your search off until later because you'll be looking for a while.

The freedom of acrobatics and tumbling is based on the principle of competition.  In competition, the best athletes that execute the best skills in the big moments usually win.  In order to prove you are the best athlete, you must perform the more advanced skills with a high level of perfection. This starts with selecting skills that meet the abilities of a team or individual.  In other words, if you are great at spinning and not so great at flipping, you would incorporate more variations of spinning skills than flipping skills.  In acrobatics and tumbling, coaches have the freedom to choose the skills that best match their team's abilities.  It's pretty simple.  Do what you are good at and get better at the other skills.  Then be good at everything.  As a coach, I would never want to be trapped into doing the same skills all season with no leeway or reason to expand and develop other skills.  I also want to make sure I select skills that I know my athletes will progress and excel through practice and development.  That is my job to determine, not someone else.

Acrobatics and tumbling also allows for coaches to adjust and adapt throughout the season.  Changing up skills and developing more advanced or creative skills throughout the season presents a motivating challenge for the athletes and coaches.  A team should be more capable of executing more difficult skills at the end of their season rather than at the beginning.  This progression and growth is not encouraged unless the opportunity for that growth is present.  If a team is forced to do the same set of skills all season, they only get better at that particular skill and don't necessarily develop as an athlete or as a whole team.  Athletes are not motivated to be good at the same thing.  Athletes are driven my new and constant challenges.

The freedom of acrobatics and tumbling also encourages safety by putting the complete responsibility for athlete safety squarely in the coaches hands.  The coach is responsible for moving the team and inviduals forward according to proper progression, performance and readiness.  While the desire to compete at a higher level is inherent in sports, the freedom to recognize the team's abilities and work within those limits is also an inherent responsibility of the coach.  When competition skills are dictated by the other team's coach and imposed on a program at the beginning of a season, the coach shares responsibility for athlete safety with the organization running the sport.  That coach will naturally try to push atheltes to achieve all the skills required to compete with potentially at the risk of working beyond the appropriate readiness or experience level of the team.  The freedom to focus on the abilities and safety of the team is partially limited when it's a get-this-skill-or-lose situation.  The freedom acro allows the coaching staff to progress the team forward safely is one of the sport's tell tale signs that the focus is on the good of the sport and the athletes invovled.

As an Acro athlete, I would imagine there is a great inner challenge and drive to have the best tumbling pass, the top stunt group or the most amazing basket toss group.  While the fun of being on a team are the times when you depend on each other and come through for each other in group skills, there is always a more individual pride to be fostered as well.  Acrobatics and tumbling allows for national rankings as stunt groups, basket toss groups, group tumblers or solo tumblers.  The freedom to excel at your strength and facilitate that inner drive is encouaraged even in such a great team sport.  If every team is doing the exact same choreography that was predetermined, there can be no individual.  It is only about the team.  That's not a bad thing, but why not have the best of both worlds?  Add to that search list, to find an athlete who wants to do the same stunt all year that every other team is doing.  Now you're really gonna need some time to find all those things.

For the first time in the history of college athletics, competitive cheer or women's sports there is a choice for athletes that embodies the competitive cheer skill set.  For the first time, there is an option to receive a college scholarship and solely compete for your university.  Be a great tumbler, be a phenomenal stunter, be 5'8" 145# and be the star on your team.  Be the number one ranked stunt group in the nation or compete for a national title as a team.  Because of Acro and Tumbling, you are free to experience all these things.

NCATA and USA Cheer Can't Come To the Table

The NCATA will never "merge" "compromise" or "join" USA Cheer.  Why would they? The six universities that created a new sport aren't trying to fit into the cheerleading world.  I've read many arguments, complaints and suggestions that all seem to share one thing in common, the "cheerleading world."  Guess what? This is the the college sports world and cheerleading has no place in it except on the sidelines with pom poms and megaphones.  I know that sounds harsh, but the quicker everyone sees that in college sports, if it acts like an activity, talks like an activity, looks (skirts and poofy hair) like an activity...IT IS AN ACTIVITY.  Why are so many people in the cheerleading world simply blind to the fact that Varsity Brands has worked to preserve cheerleading as an activity?  They govern it, they oversee the safety of it, they dress it, they compete it, they even think they own it... WE ARE CHEERLEADING.  Uhhh, isn't that a little bit insulting that they think they ARE CHEERLEADING.  I guess all the actual cheerleaders have nothing to do with it.
But back to my point.  For years, Varsity has made sure cheerleading was treated and recognized as a activity and not a sport.  All high school and college sports are governed by NFHS, the state associations and the NCAA.  This means loss of control, loss of participation at competitions and thus potential loss of customer loyalty, uniform sales, camp sales and general revenue and profit loss.  If you can't make them compete with you, dress with you and abide by your rules, then you can't keep them from spending their dollars else where.  As a sport, when the school is required to buy uniforms for a team, do you really think a school is going to pay the inflated prices for uniforms that the kids themselves do now? Imagine a school having a choice of the $250 uniform or the $75 plain one.  As you can see, Varsity never wanted cheerleading to be a sport.  Jeff Webb even says in his financial documents filed with the Security Exchange Commission that cheerleading as a sport would have an adverse impact on their profits.

Your gonna tell me that the largest cheerleading company in the world that claims, WE ARE CHEERLEADING, didn't have the power to step forward sooner and make cheerleading a sport?  Seriously? Why all of a sudden does USA Cheer/Varsity Brands want to make cheerleading a sport.  Enter NCATA and Acrobatics and Tumbling.  The NCATA is the governing body of Acrobatics and Tumbling and is the organization that is responsible for bringing competitive cheerleading to sport status at the collegiate level.  This is the organization made up of CHEERLEADERS that simply decided they wanted to get rid of the non competitive elements of cheerleading and promote the athletic ones.  These people are from the same cheerleading world you are from.  They just finally wanted something more specialized on the competitive.  So the NCATA formed, came up with a format and started moving forward.  Webb/Varsity, whose market value is going down (inside sale reference), couldn't stand for someone else to beat him to the punch.  As if what looks like a monopoly wasn't enough, Jdubbs threw STUNT in the mix with it's capital letters and football like refs and whistles.  But that's really only part of the master plan.  As president of the International Cheer Union, the plan is to take over the world.  Having saturated the American market, Varsity has set it's sights on the international arena.  The plan to take the ICU and cheerleading to the international sports world and possibly the Olympics is the ultimate goal.  So it's imperative that he have control over the "sport" in the United States.  But you can't control the sport as a company.  You must do this as a national governing body.  Conveniently, along comes USA Cheer which suddenly claims to be everyone's governing body of cheerleading?  Well I guess it sort of works when you just form in the dark and put all Varsity-loyal  people from various organizations on the USA Cheer board and in office.  Then it "appears" that you have representation/membership from all levels of cheerleading (USASF, High School, AACCA, etc.). Now you fit into the model that the internation sports world is expecting for any sport.  USA Cheer governs the US and belongs to the ICU.  The ICU is the internation governing body forthe sport and they recognize USA Cheer.  The ICU is run by Jeff Webb.

Let's get back to the NCATA and USA Cheer.  I had to take you on a trip for a second.  To bring this all back around, cheerleading should have been made a sport a LONG time ago.  Varisty had the power and opportunity to do it.  They did not because it did not serve their business model at the time.  Now that Varsity basically owns the US cheerleading world (and World's hahaha), they have embarked on the conquest of the internation market.  Foreign countries deal with sports much differently than the US.  They recognize cheerleading as a sport and it's governed by non profit national governing bodies, not companies trying to make a dollar.  So thus, there had to be a different approach to the structure of things in order to make headway in the international market, i.e. USA Cheer, ICU.
For this very reason, the NCATA could never compromise with Varsity.  The NCATA is about the opportunity created for female athletes.  It is about the sport itself and the athletes that are a part of it.  This is not about power or money or some race to make cheerleading a sport or reach the Olympics.  This is about a need for something athletes wanted and a group who is trying to bring it to fruition.  Please raise you hand if you truly believe that is the principle behind STUNT?  If your hand is up, please raise the other one and flap the two like wings.  Because you are dreaming and in your dreams you can just fly away.
Even though Acro and Tumbling is competitive cheerleading, it is a new sport in the eyes of the NCAA.  It is not meant to take away from the structure of the collegiate, high school or all star cheerleading world.  It is simply meant to add another opportunity.  It's not meant to limit males from participation.  It's simply meant to add more opportunities for women in college sports where they are still underrepresented. Everything about this new sport is meant to be for the good of the sport and the participants.  I haven't even mentioned the 2 million plus dollars in college scholarships that have been given out by the universities sponsoring varsity Acro and Tumbling teams.  That is commitment to a sport and to the athletes.  Meanwhile, USA Cheer (Varsity) has probably spent about a fifth of that paying for teams to travel for free, giving away free uniforms and paying entry fees to bribe them to participate in STUNT.  Again, this is just not the way sports work or who the NCATA wants to be associated with.

There is no sitting down with USA Cheer.  There is no compromise. There is no nuetral ground.  Unless USA Cheer wants to drop the copy of A&T they call STUNT, step back and get out of the way of what the NCATA is doing, it's just going to be a battle they will loose with the NCAA.  Unfortunately, most of the people in the cheerleading world have been led to believe the NCATA is the one who did something wrong and is trying to ruin everything.  Meanwhile, Webb and the crew are laughing all the way to the bank.
 If you really want to know the truth, just look at the facts.  In January, then February of the 2009-2010 season, the first two NCATA meets where held. Then at NCA nationals that year, USA Cheer and NCA tried to get the compete only teams to agree to bring the new format into it's own division at NCA that they could run.  Bill Boggs said they would make the NCATA a household name (as if he had the power).  The NCATA university adminstrators wisely told him no thank you.   Then the courtcase with Quinnipiac involved Jeff Webb VOLUNTARILY testifying that cheerleading was NOT a sport, but rather an activity like chess and that it was entertainment. But then he and USA Cheer turned around and started a copy of the sport called STUNT.  They said they had been working on it for 5 years, but USA Cheer just was formed in 2007.  That's not even 5 years at this point a year after they said it.  Have you seen the two models? OMG... there's no comparison.  STUNT is game compared to the SPORT  of Acro and Tumbling.  Then comes the barring of teams from participating in Acro or they can't compete at UCA or NCA nationals.  This is beginning to sound like a hostile company take over.  Oh wait... that's exactly what this attempt is.
For those of you who think the two organization need to sit down at the table and work this out, please answer one question.  Why does a angel sit with a demon to plan building a church.  Perhaps the best way to approach this issueis  to separate the cheerleading world that Varsity Brands has created/controls and the collegiate sports world.  It's like Arnold Swartzeneggar going into politics.  Do you really want and actor to cross into the world of politics? I mean sure, California elected him, but now they are bankrupt and functioning on government bailout money.  Cheerleading and all it's glamour, glitter, bows, poms, uniforms, game day excitment, leadership, athleticism and spirit will still be the same cheerleading world.  There just will be another women's sport on campus.  It's not part of the cheerleading world it's part of the sports world.  Stand for the group that stood for the sport.  There can be no compromise in this situation so pick a side and give your support. I just hope you realize one side charges for that support and on the other side, that support will double and pay off for a female athlete down the road.