Cheer Athletics

Unfortunately, both CA and Mad Frog have had multiple break-ins into the cars in our shared parking lot.  It has happened mostly at night, but Mad Frog has reported some during the day as well.  We will work with the building owner to come up with measures to help decrease the risk, but in the meantime, Plano police has some suggestions:   

1.  Do not leave valuables or bags in your vehicle.  It appears that they are looking through the windows until they see something in the cars that look promising, breaking a window, and grabbing what they see.   The best option is to not leave anything in your car at all.  If you do, then please put bags and valuables in your trunk or hidden from view.

2.  Please immediately report anything suspicious to the front desk and/or or call the Police.  

3.  Please use common sense and be careful.  To our knowledge, we have not had anyone physically harmed or threatened - however, we encourage to stay in pairs/groups when walking to/from your car - particularly behind the gym.

The upcoming issue of D Magazine has a cover story on the 2011-12 Cheer Athletics Panthers.

How_the_Plano_Panthers_Cheer_Squad_Became_World_Champions

Our feelings on the article are mixed. It isn't entirely bad, but there are definitely things in there that we would never have approved if we had any editorial control over what was being said.

The reporter had followed Panthers throughout the season last year and was given behind-the-scenes access to practices and performances. After the season, and in talking to him, we were really excited about the possibilities of the article. He had been given the opportunity to follow a team from arguably the best program in the world through an undefeated and historical season. Unfortunately, this is not the type of article that we (or the cheer world) would want to see.

The biggest disappointment we have is that there was the potential for such a great story about the athleticism and grace of the sport. He could have spent time talking about the teamwork it takes to get to the highest level of the sport.  It could have talked about the sportsmanship exhibited between our teams and the teams they compete with. He could have discussed how it is possible for our coaches and athletes to have so many different teams that are able to reach incredible heights in the cheer world. It is simply sad to me that he chose instead to spend 12 paragraphs discussing a teenage slumber party and 1 sentence on the team actually winning the World Championship. That was not at all what we were led to believe the story would be about.

There was also some crude language that makes it inappropriate for many of our younger athletes. I don't envy the parents of the youngsters having to explain what some of the words mean. That is not language that we allow in our facility for the precise reason that we don't want the younger athletes to hear that.

On a positive note: the pictures were fantastic.

PS

There are several flat-out factual errors, and several misleading things taken out of context that give you a false impression about the team and some of the athletes. They did send Brad a fact-check sheet that listed several items to confirm and he made corrections. Some of the those corrections did not get changed in the final article.

As of now, we are not able to offer public WiFi at the gym.   We do have internet for the staff, but with limited bandwidth.  Until we can come up with a better solution (and a faster connection), we need to reserve the existing bandwidth for running business transactions.   It is VERY slow at times as it is.  

We are using Verizon Fios for business.  That was what we had at the old gym as well, but it seemed MUCH faster.  If anyone knows of a (reasonable) better solution, please let us know.

With a stunning 6 medals from 2012 Worlds, CA/DA jumps even further ahead of all other programs in the total medal count.

Top 10 Programs:

(Total, Program, State, Golds, Silvers, Bronzes)

1. 29 - Cheer Athletics - TX  (14, 8, 7)
2. 15 - Cheer Extreme - NC (2, 5, 7)
3. 14 - GymTyme - KY -(13, 1, 0)
4. 14 - Stingrays - GA (8, 4, 3)
5. 14 - Spirit of Texas - TX (5, 7, 2)
6. 14 - California AS - CA (4, 9, 1)
7. 13 - Top Gun - FL (5, 3, 5)
8. 11 - World Cup - NJ (5, 2, 4)
9. 10 - Maryland Twisters - MD (4, 3, 3)
10. 9 - Twist & Shout - OK (2, 3, 4)

Special Note:   Since Worlds started in 2004, there has never been a single season when a program took home more Worlds medals than Cheer Athletics.

There are several pictures of our current (or former) CA athletes when they were competing in Daytona for NCA College Nationals.   Check out the photo album here:  cheerathletics.com/index.php