Note: I’m going to tell you my experience here. I am not here to further the list of negativity when it comes to scoring or season-after-season changes. There’s enough of that in other groups. I am here to create a call to action for small gyms and new owners.

 

I feel like I’m a very accepting gym owner. When things don’t go right on a competition weekend, I do my best to give a benefit of the doubt. Some of the things we’ve dealt with this season have been understandable, while others are starting to become more and more difficult to explain to parents.

 

We were probably one of the first programs to compete this season with a mid-November event. I understand and expect there to be some confusion and misunderstandings at an event this early in the season. After all, we’re sort of guinea pigs when it comes to judging. Does this skill count? We like competing that early so as to spread our competitions out throughout the season and lessen the burden on our families, so I accept that November events will often come with a unique set of challenges. A few I dealt with in Novemebr included: 

 

  1. Does a clap or cone count as a pause between skills in standing tumbling? 
  2. In a handstand to a forward roll (not a handstand forward roll, but two separate connected skills), do the arms coming back up (as a handstand should) break up the pass and count as a “pause”?
  3. Does a directional change break up a standing tumbling pass? 
  4. Are “structures” in fact considered elements in level 1 (meaning do “other skills” count as elements in a level 1 pyramid)?
  5. Are standing 3 back handsprings considered an elite standing skill in level 3?

 

So, here’s the thing. I understand having these issues in November. The judges, while firm in their decisions, were doing the best they could with the information that was provided. There are times in my gym that parents have questions, and while I should know all the answers, I just don’t. I have to reach out to an event producer or vendor to ask those questions, and it doesn’t happen instantly. I get that and that’s why I have a lot of patience with our accuscore team during those early events. I’ve been pretty honest with my athletes and parents that there are some benefits to competing early, but the potential for inaccuracies or lack of clarification in scoring is definitely one of the drawbacks.

 

By February though, I expect to only be facing new challenges with scoring. I no longer expect issues that were dealt with and clarified back in November. 

 

God bless the accuscore team this past weekend. I heard coach after coach with issues, and not all of them were kind. I found myself having to take a few deep breaths as well. It wasn’t the accuscore team. They were kind and patient. In fact, one of them had such good feedback that I tried to “friend” him yesterday to see if he does virtual routine reviews. 

 

That didn’t stop me from feeling incredibly frustrated when I was receiving a 3.2 difficulty because my standing 3 back handsprings were yet again not being given credit as an elite skill on my senior 3 team. I battled this back in November and received the clarification that they were an elite skill, so you can imagine how frustrated I was when I got this score and was told otherwise. We’ve already explained to parents and athletes once this season that the judges made an error, and it would be fixed moving forward.

 

My co-coach is a preschool teacher. She’s maybe the nicest person I’ve ever met. Her first response was, “OK, we’ll have to change it for the next competition,” to which I responded to the accuscore team, “I’m not changing anything. This is an elite skill.” My tone wasn’t rude, but it was firm. I knew what I was talking about, and I wasn’t willing to accept this error again.

 

The accuscore team then showed me the elite level skill list, which to my surprise, had still not been updated to include this skill. 

 

Listen, I get it. I should have checked that. I shouldn’t trust that any score will be given based on knowledge and training alone. If it’s not there in black and white, I’m not getting credit for it. After 11 years of cheer, I should have known that, but I suppose I trusted that the issue was resolved. It seemed like common sense to me, but this is all star cheerleading (Did you just giggle like I did when I read that statement back?) 

 

So, after I was shown the elite skill examples again, I send off a text message to the powers that be to provide proof that a standing 3 is an elite level skill. I sat in front of accuscore at 11 p.m. on Saturday night doing this as awards were beginning for my session. As I did it, I was told, “We’ve already tried messaging and didn’t get a reply.” 

 

If you know me, you know I have a hard time retreating from a battle where I know there is an injustice happening. (My event coordinator would die laughing at this statement saying, “Oh, the drama” every time I talk about cheerleading as if it were life and death, but sometimes in the moment it feels like it, right?) 

 

With extreme hesitation and not having anything in writing, I realized I didn’t have a fighting chance of getting my points. So, I headed out to awards. Within two minutes of leaving scorecheck, I got a reply to my message. The end-all-be-all of scoring confirmed that it was an elite-level skill. He also confirmed that it was Saturday night at almost midnight and would need to be officially dealt with on Monday morning. 

 

As a gym owner who occasionally receives “cheer-mergency” texts from parents, I have been in his shoes. My emergency was not a real emergency, nor was it his to deal issue with on his Saturday night. 

 

Nevertheless, I ran to accuscore hurdling over backpacks and through groups of coaches to see if there was any way to get the points my team deserved. After about 10 minutes of deliberation and an official decision from the event producer, I was told they would be standing with the scores as it wouldn’t have changed my placement.

 

Here is my response to that: 

 

  1. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Fix the scores.
  2. I haven’t received a division breakdown, but I have a hard time swallowing the fact that a .8 wouldn’t have changed anything. I watched the winning team. They were amazing. They deserved the win. My team deserved to be scored fairly too though despite placement.
  3. In a world where my parents eagerly await national rankings, and I have tremendous parent-participation during scoresheet meetings, I’m not looking forward to explaining this one to our gym parents.
  4. Further, this is our third event of the season to have major scoring issues to explain to parents at a scoresheet meeting. The average person would be slated by now. With the amount of money they pay and the time they invest into competitive cheerleading, it’s hard to hear that our scores were yet again wrong, and that instead of coaches enjoying awards with our athletes, we were fighting a battle at scorecheck. We haven’t competed with the largest monopoly in cheer for a few years. My gym parents have been understanding and respectful of our decisions to compete IEPs. That said, “the grass is greener” is going to be a real feeling this week after our scoresheet meeting. Note: I realize the united scoresheet has its own set of issues, but my parents will not experience those, and the grass will still look greener until they do. 

 

There’s one other very big thing that bothered me. I’m going to sound like I’m on a rabbit trail here, but stick with me…

 

One of my former coaches was there this weekend. She moved six hours away and now owns a small, but thriving, gym in Arkansas. She is in a position I was in about six years ago. I didn’t know who was who when it came to the powers that be. I didn’t know event producers personally, and couldn’t just DM them to get answers to my questions. I was a small gym in Missouri, and didn’t really have any connections outside of my close circle of Missouri gyms. I didn’t have a lot of good friends in the industry. I didn’t have friends who judge to reach out to when I needed an informal “hey, is this legal?” as we tried new skills. I was just over here in small-town Missouri doing my thing and staying out of industry gossip.

 

What if this had happened to her? Would she have felt like she needed to waste an entire practice redoing counts and formations to put in a tumbling skill listed on the sheet so she got her points? I bet so. I imagine she would have done what I did years ago and accepted the ruling as fact. “I am probably wrong, so I’m going to trust you.” That was my mentality, because I didn’t know differently, and I didn’t have the confidence to disagree with anyone at accuscore. 

 

Who suffers when there are errors to the scoresheet? Small gyms who don’t have the connections or confidence to know right from wrong when it comes to scoring. I’m grateful there are places like Next Gen and Forte Spirit Solutions today who can help small gyms build that confidence, but not all super small gyms or new gyms will take advantage of those resources.

 

So, I sit here Monday morning about to send off emails to scoring officials and the event producer with my feedback. As I do that, I have a few final thoughts.

 

  1. I will be firmly requesting that skill examples are updated in writing. In fact, if it’s going to count, it needs to be updated. Administrative errors shouldn’t steal points from the kids and coaches who work hard every week to earn them.
  2. Take a deep breath. I have been fairly frustrated with people at accuscore at 75 percent of the events we’ve attended this season. I’ve been met with kindness and professionalism at *almost* all of them though. Be kind and professional. Take a deep breath. Be confident and firm in what you know is right, but do so with class.
  3. Event producers – do the right thing – not the easy thing. If it will take time to fix all the scores in a division because your judges made an error, do it. I was at this event from 7 a.m. until 12:30 a.m. (which is an entirely different issue I’ll address tonight on Fireside Chat), but I was begging for it to get fixed so I wouldn’t have to explain to my parents why the error was made in the first place.

 

I have a lot of grace for errors. I understand they happen. They need to happen less often, but I think everyone knows that: Coaches, owners, judges, accuscore, event producers and the powers that be. We all agree it needs to be consistent and fair. Getting there is the hard part. I’ll put it in writing now – whatever I need to do to contribute to that, let me know. I’ll offer the same in the email I send to the event producer and scoring officals today. I’m willing to help, but I’m not willing to see errors continue to happen over and over and have to explain it week after week to my gym parents and athletes.

 

Let’s do better for our athletes and the future of our sport. Send EPs your feedback. Ask the questions. Take advantage of the resources so you’re confident in your abilities to get clarification at accuscore. Do these things for your athletes and the future of our sport.

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