The first few years of my gym, all I wanted was to see my all star program grow. I opened a gym because I loved coaching cheerleading. Yet, in those early years I felt like I was always struggling at tryout time. I would get people who were interested who ultimately dropped off before or immediately after teams were announced. Rec tumbling had become a bigger program than all star. In fact, it had become 90 percent of my program. I’d invest tons of time into marketing for cheer tryouts and be extremely disappointed when my efforts yielded just a few new athletes, which at the time, broke me even as we naturally lost kids to other sports, military moves and a desire for more free time.
It wasn’t until about 2 years ago that I saw MASSIVE GROWTH in my all star program. I’ve said before I attribute that growth to the All Star Academy material Shelley created (I am an owner who knew my weaknesses, so I embraced the opportunity to learn!) and the development of a novice program. It helped that the sport grew in familiarity in my town and people stopped asking where our poms were.
Yesterday though, I was at a graduation party for my best friend’s son. She’s been a friend for many years and even went to Air Force bootcamp with Justin 25 years ago. Her daughters cheered for a few years and will graduate next year. (They left the program a few years ago to pursue track and volleyball, which they’ll likely both get scholarships in though her younger twin fills in for us from time to time throughout the season.) Anyway, she saw the team placement announcements on Facebook. She congratulated me on the immense growth in the program again this year and then said something that stuck with me.
“It’s good that you’re seeing this growth now when you can actually focus on that program!”
She knows that in those early years we didn’t do our annual river float together. We missed Halloween parties and kids’ birthdays. We spent every waking moment focused on staff development, working classes, parties and teams, and putting out fires at the gym. I wouldn’t have had the time to truly devote into developing my athletes and my all star staff. I have big goals to teach those kids about cheer, but more importantly, I want to really pour into their hearts and make them good people. That requires planning and intentionality. I couldn’t have genuinely produced that in those early years because I was burning the candle at both ends.
If you’re frustrated with the lack of growth in your all star program, shift your focus. Look at your other programs and see where they need to be developed. Look at your staff, your facility and your systems, and see where they could go if you spent some time focusing on them. Your time will come, but maybe it’s not here yet because you’re not ready. In those early years, I learned:
- How to deal with difficult parents – and I was TERRIBLE at this the first few years. (A few difficult parents and drama mamas per season FELT like dozens…so thank God I didn’t have 100+ all star families to answer to at the time!)
- To hire and retain great staff and when they can handle taking on their own teams. No one wants to hire a coach to have them quit mid-season.
- How to use Profit First and properly budget, because no parent wants to pay you all this money and see you struggle to pay competition fees.
I learned a lot in those years my program was small. In fact, I needed those years to learn to run a gym and not let my focus shift entirely to all star. So, if your turnout for all star was smaller than you hoped, shift your focus to what’s next. You might find out you actually love running a gym and had no idea just how capable you are.
