Evaluations for placement on next year's ALL-STAR TEAMS

Here at LI Cheer, we aspire to create an atmosphere that welcomes athletes of all ages consistent & high quality instruction to enhance their cheerleading skills. We ensure professional training from our certified, trained, and award winning staff. It is the goal of LI Cheer not only to produce top level athletes, but to provide a challenging, rewarding, comfortable, and positive journey in a well disciplined environment.

Rental of our facility is available to school districts, teams and youth leagues  please call for rates you may rent the facility entirely or portions of including spring foor, tumble track/trampoline, dance room and foam floor.

L.I. Cheer is a private organization serving the top cheer and dance athletes from Long Island. At L.I. Cheer we strive to be “the best of the best.” Through various competitions, performances, and practices, our staff strives to develop the whole athlete - physically, mentally, and emotionally. We are the largest athletic program of its type on Long Island, hoping to produce top cheer athletes. Hundreds of our athletes have continued from our program to cheer for the top collegiate and professional teams in the nation. While the most obvious way that we help the youth in our program is by bettering their skills and helping them reach their athletic potential, we believe our program serves a higher purpose. Our competitive program’s primary purpose is to teach growing young adults how to work together as a team. While each individual’s contribution is certainly important, we feel that team effort is the way to reach your goals. Throughout a person’s life, they will be put in situations where they must work together to achieve common goals. Whether in their professional or social life, teamwork is a lifetime lesson more valuable than tumbling skills. While the hours, weeks, months, even years of work that go into improving stunts, tumbling, jumps, leaps, and turns will improve your skills and your chances of cheering or dancing in college, much more important than that are the lessons you can learn about sportsmanship, working together towards goals, and striving to win.

Everyone associated with L.I. Cheer (i.e., coaches, athletes, family members, etc.) is expected to uphold a high level of sportsmanship and character. This handbook is provided as a guide to the specific policies and procedures of our program.

Becoming an ALL-STAR for Long Island Cheer, is joining a family. We strive to help every athlete in our gym with positive reinforcement and comments. Each student is valued and we hope to spread that attitude to our athletes and parents. We look for team cooperation, cheering on each individual on your team and the other teams from our gym at practices, events and competitions.

 
Contracts will be given out and must be signed by athlete and guardians before participating as an all-star.

Sportsmanship and team unity are very important to our organization. Please be courteous and considerate to all teams and athletes. This includes other all-star programs and other Long Island Cheer teams. Please don’t speak negatively about any person, decision, or result. This includes the internet and message boards! We strive to teach our athletes respect and sportsmanship. Anyone who behaves in a manner in or out of the gym that we view as inappropriate may be asked to leave our program. Note - Athletes whose parents are excessively negative or obnoxious will be removed from the program. We are trying to create a positive, pleasant learning environment for our athletes.

Attendance is very important to the success of the teams. We will give each athlete a calendar to fill out with all of the dates that he/she may miss during the season. This allows us to plan around any excused absences that may occur during the season. You will get more information about our policy in the next couple of weeks.

Please note that no athlete has an absolute guarantee of a roster spot on any particular team. The coaching staff reserves the right, at any time, without notice, to change the rosters of the teams by adding, rearranging, or removing athletes to/from teams for a performance, practice, or the entire program. We attempt to make roster changes as infrequent as possible and with as much warning as possible. Athletes may be removed from our program at any time for reasons which may include, but are not limited to: attitude problems, absences and/or tardiness, talent level, lack of improvement, lack of financial responsibility, fitness level of an athlete, and personality conflicts between athletes, coaches, parents, or anyone else involved in our program. There will be no refunds of tuition given in the event of removal from a team.

Our teams typically practice a total of 3 hours a week for the bulk of the season. This is typically broken into two 1 1/2 hour weeknight practices. The practice schedule for each team is determined by a combination of gym availability and school activities. To the best of our ability, we attempt to create a schedule that accommodates all the athletes on each team. The length and number of practices may change as we enter new phases of our season. Some months may have more or longer practices than others.

L.I. Cheer Athletics is located at 40 Trade Zone Court in Ronkonkoma. We are lucky to have one of the largest, most advanced cheerleading training facilities in Long Island. Please treat the gym with respect and follow the gym’s guidelines. Pets are not allowed in the facility. Bottled drinks (with caps) are allowed only in the viewing area. You may not bring outside food or drink into the gym! Only coaches and athletes are allowed in the main practice area. Everyone else must stay either in the viewing room or lobby during practices. LIC reserves the right to restrict anyone or everyone from the gym or viewing area during practices or classes at any time.

We participate in several local and national competitions throughout the year. These provide our program with an opportunity to showcase our talents and compete with other programs. We strongly encourage parents, family, and friends to attend these competitions to help show support for all of our teams. All athletes will be expected to be present and show support for all Long Island Cheer teams. In other words, athletes may not arrive late or leave early from competitions and miss any LIC team performance without prior permission. Under no circumstances should anyone other than the coaching staff contact the hosting companies with questions or requests for information. LIC will attempt to provide you with everything you need to know at the appropriate time.

All music, cheers, dances, stunts, and any choreography or ideas that are presented to athletes during practices are to remain confidential and should not be discussed, taught, or given to others outside our program. The coaching staff puts great effort into creating original material for our teams, and we do not wish for it to be shared with friends, school teammates, athletes, or parents in other all-star programs. You may not use any of our material for your school team!

The name “Long Island Cheer or L.I. Cheer” and our star logos are the property of L.I. Cheer, Inc. and are protected under law. Permission is required before anyone may sell any product that uses or displays our name or logo. All sales involving L.I. Cheer merchandise must go through L.I. Cheer, Inc. No one can produce ANYTHING with the words “Long Island Cheer” or the logo without Melissa or Mark’s expressed permission!

While we strive to provide the safest possible environment for our athletes, injuries and/or illnesses may occur. Long Island Cheer is not liable for any expenses rising from injuries or illnesses resulting from participation in our program. We strongly encourage every athlete have their own insurance coverage to defray medical or other expenses.

Teams are typically broken down in 4 different ways: age, level, total number of athletes, and number of males.

Age Brackets:
For years, all-star has been tied to its school-team roots by using an athlete’s grade level to determine their eligibility for the various divisions. (ex. - Junior team = 9th grade and under) While this is what most people are used to, there are several problems with this system, not the least of which is the difficulty of verifying an athlete’s actual grade level. All of the all-star divisions are now determined purely by age. What grade you are in (or even if you are still in school) has absolutely no bearing on eligibility. In order to avoid an athlete’s eligibility changing during the year, there is a cut-off date as well. How old you are on AUG 6 tryouts will determine your “competition age” for that entire season. In other words, if you are 14 on AUG 6, you compete as a “14 year old” for that entire season, even if you turn 15 Sept 1. There is no minimum age requirement for any of the regular divisions. Senior Advanced 18 and under, Senior Prep 16 and under, Junior 14 and under, Mini 8 and under, and Tiny 6 and under.

Levels:
We try to match up the athletes by level as best we can, but please remember that stunting, pyramids, jumps, dance, motions, and age are huge factors as well. It is simply not feasible (or desirable) for every team to have 35 exactly matched athletes. Some will be stronger tumblers than others. Some will help us more with stunts than others. Every athlete is on the team for a reason - please trust the staff. This season we will be working hard to push every athlete to improve their skills, even if it means working on skills that are above what is allowed in routines at their team’s current level.

Size of Team & Number of Males:
Teams are also divided, at some age levels and divisions, by the number of athletes on the team. Typically, 20 or fewer athletes is a “small” team and 21-35 is a “large” team. Also, at some age/ability levels there are further divisions between teams based upon how many males are on the team. At the senior age level, typically 1-4 males are “limited” coed (formerly “small coed”) and 5 or more is “unlimited” coed (formerly “large coed”). At the junior age level, 1 or more males would be “coed”. At mini age and below, there is no distinction made for gender.

Competitive cheerleading, while not as costly as some youth activities, can still be an expensive sport. Entry fees for competitions alone are hundreds of dollars a year per athlete. Long Island Cheer, which is becoming widely recognized as a top competitive cheerleading program in LI, has the finest staff and the most state-of-the-art facility in our area for our sport. As a result, our fees are slightly higher than some programs. The difference in costs between our program and others is not as large as you may expect, however. In fact, if you factor in the costs of entry fees, camp, and other expenses that are often paid for separately at other gyms, you may actually spend less per year than some other local programs. They may advertise a lower “tuition” rate only to have you pay significant extra amounts throughout the year to the gym or booster club. At Long Island Cheer, we are as up-front with our costs as possible. We have an “all-inclusive” monthly price that covers practically ALL of the expenses that an athlete would normally incur throughout the year. This price includes: tuition, choreography/music, and numerous other expenses. This system makes financial planning much easier for our customers.

L.I. Cheer also provides you with the convenience of automatic draft. This allows you to use either, credit card or a checking/savings account to pay your monthly fee without having to write a check every month. You will know exactly how much will be charged, and when it will happen.