Florida Top Dog All Stars

With any competitive leveled team sport, there are always skill expectations, benchmarks, and requirements. Competitive all-star cheerleading is no exception. It is an expensive sport that requires athletes to be versatile in so many skills. When teams are selected each May, the coaching staff strives to look at all the strengths of athletes and put teams together where each athlete's strengths will contribute to the success of the team. If an athlete, at any time, during the year has difficulty maintaining the skills they were placed on the team with, they can be asked to either go to a lower level team in the gym (if spots are available on that team) or be taken out the routine (but kept on that team) until they get those skills back. A TEMPORARY athlete is placed on the team in those spots in the routine until the athlete regains his/her skills. Once he/she does then he/she is able to go back into the routine. The athlete involved in this situation was in no way kicked off the team and that was clearly explained to the client.

There are specific protocols we have in place before we make decisions as the ones above. We meet with the athlete as well as the guardian/parent and discuss the issues. We come up with solutions of ways we can help the athlete to achieve his/her goals and get back the skills he/she is struggling with. This process was followed with several meetings between coaches, athlete and guardian. We are always very clear on these expectations and what the outcomes will be if the athlete continues to struggle. This process does not happen overnight but rather sometimes through several weeks or even months. The initial meetings took place back in the fall when we saw the athlete struggle with lack of strength and stamina in both stunting and tumbling skills. These concerns greatly affected both the athlete's safety as well as the safety of his/her teammates.

Competitive all-star cheer is a very costly sport and our staff must take into consideration the potential success of the team as well as keep the individual athlete's best interest at hand. This is why we do our best to communicate the expectations up front and keep communication lines open between guardians/parents and athletes when there is a concern which is what we did in this particular situation. The athlete's coaches in no way harassed the athlete nor did they call the athlete's high school coach and say he/she had an eating disorder.

If there are misunderstandings in decisions, we do our best to contact the guardian/parent and request a meeting in person to discuss concerns, rather than send emails back and forth. When we finally made the decision to remove the athlete from the routine, we personally met once again with the guardian and athlete to explain the outcome and to make sure they both knew that we wanted to see the athlete regain strength and skills in order to be able to go back into the routine. Our number one concern was for the well-being of the athlete as well as the safety of the team. We did not offer the athlete a spot on a lower level team because there was none available at the time except one that was 4 levels below the leveled team she was on. We had no idea that the athlete would leave the program. We believed he/she was going to remain on the team and get stronger in order to return into the routine as soon as possible. We thought this was a much better choice than to go to a lower level team. The clients left the meeting having no additional questions and then proceeded to tell other clients that we kicked the athlete off the team. When we heard this misunderstanding, we reached out to the guardian requesting an additional meeting to clear up the false information. We were met with the response that they did not want to meet again. The client never seemed interested in staying in the program until the guardian/parent emailed me about going to another team. It was then that we explained we had a spot open on a level team that was 4 levels lower. We did not think that they would want that but we did offer it since they asked about. They, of course, turned it down which is why we did not offer in the first place.

The expectations for our program are set forth in our informational packet that is signed by the guardian/parent as well as the athlete at the beginning of the season. In fact, cheerleaders are not even allowed to tryout if these commitments and guidelines are not signed.

I am attaching our guidelines that are signed up front that explains expectations as well as our not -for-profit status that states that we do not refund monies as funds given are considered donations and cannot be refunded. We were able to refund the client monies that were allotted towards team travel which was outside of the regular monthly budgeted fees.

We are truly saddened by the decision of the client to pull the athlete from the program. This athlete is very dear to our heart and we have enjoyed having him/her in our program. We did all we could to communicate up front and keep the team and the athlete's best interests in mind.

This will be my last response as I feel we have responded appropriately to the client's concern. No one ever mentioned the athlete having a medical condition and once again the athlete was not taken off the team. The guardian is the one who removed the athlete from the team and the program.