Parents Does your gym have a cheer-leading team?

[WingingIt]

I noticed on our gyms website that they are planning on starting a cheer team... not sure how I feel. Does your gym have a cheer team?

 

[Flyaway]

Ours does, but it is a separate entity entirely, even practicing at a different gym.

 

[CuriousCate]

Ours does not. If they did, I'd hope they would practice in the smaller sub gym/preschool class area. Mostly for selfish reasons...I don't want my DDs seeing it, thinking it looks fun and then jumping ship from gym and moving over to cheer. I have been warned that cheer in our area is a BEAST with insane amounts of travel and crazy-maker parents!

 

[MUTigerMom]

Nope. We have several gyms in the area that do both but it usually seems like one area takes a backseat to the other. (For example, One does well in cheer but doesn't have gymnasts above level 6). Our gym is fairly small so I am glad we don't have to share our space. I do wish we would start a TNT team, though.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Yes, but it is a separate entity and practices at another gym location. There is very little interaction between the programs, with the exception of the higher level cheerleader having mandatory tumbling classes with skilled gym coaches at “our” gym.
We do occasionally have some gymnasts that start out with gymnastics and somewhere around middle school age hop over to cheer, but not many by any means. By the time the girls get to higher Optionals, most have no interest in cheer at all. I would say the crossovers tend to be slightly older compulsories or Xcel girls who like tumbling and dislike bars.
Both programs are quite successful in their own right.

 

[raenndrops]

We did for 1 year. It was a coach who came in for the gymnastics program and the Y wanted to try a cheer team. Since she had coached both at her previous gym, she ran the team. It had girls in grades 3-12 and 4 guys (all in high school).
Her coaching philosophy did not align with our gym philosophy... this was evident within a week of the cheer season being over. She even yelled at a NOT EVEN 3 year old for not pointing her toes on the high beam! HC heard and started observing the rest of the class she was teaching. The little one had moved up to that class early (Mommy and Me went to age 3 and she moved to the 3 & 4 year old class at 2.5). That was the last day she taught a preschool class. She didn't do any better with regular rec ... and she put in her 2 weeks notice right after that. She moved away and we didnt have a cheer team after that.
BTW, the little one she yelled at is fine and she just competed Y Nationals as an Xcel Platinum at 13.
Some of the younger cheerleaders from the team switched to gymnastics or did jr high or high school cheer if old enough.

Now the gym where we go to Open gym has both gymnastics and cheer teams and both do very well. They even have a boys gymnastics team. It is small, but also does well.

 

[spider_monkey]

Yes, and it's a small gym, so they share a practice area. Nights when they both practice at the same time are my least favorite nights of the week. I don't know who's louder, the cheerleaders or their moms.

 

[Gymsy4]

Ours does. My kids see it, but aren’t interested in the least. They think it looks boring.

 

[SMH]

Yep, but it’s totally separate from the gymnastics program, they have their own space and coaches.

 

[RTT2]

No. Cheerleading isn't big in our area.