Varsity Lewis Cheer vs. All Star Cheer

To all you cheerleaders out there: Have you ever contemplated what made All Star Cheer different from FCPS high school cheer, or which would be worth joining?

All Star Cheer is a more “professional” type of cheerleading. All Star Cheer involves more variety and greater difficulty with stunts, more advanced tumbling skills, higher costs and expenses, and more demanding practices than in high school cheer.

All Star Cheer features many levels: 1 through 7 depending on individual cheer skills. The skills demonstrated at try-outs that determine on what level the individual is include jumps, tumbling, strength, and dance skills. The higher the level, the more effort and skills they must demonstrate.

For FCPS high school cheerleaders, competing as part of Virginia High School League, there are three levels: freshmen, junior varsity (JV), and varsity. In some FCPS high schools, like John R. Lewis High School, there is only junior varsity and varsity.

When students at Lewis High School try out for high school cheer, they are judged by their jumps, motions, dancing, and sometimes even their height (for stunt position availability). This is different from All Star Cheer where cheerleaders simply get placed into the program that best matches their skill level. (In high school cheer, cheerleaders try out, and if they don’t make the team, they must wait until next year to try again.) All Star Cheer offers more levels that can fit your abilities giving you the greater chance to get accepted.

Beyond the skills, financial cost is another major barrier and difference. You pay to be on All Star Cheer for training, tumbling, travelling, competition fees, or uniform fees, guaranteeing you a spot on the team.

Senior Amaya Peters is in All Star Cheer and practices twice a week in their Hanover, MD facility. Peters says that All Star Cheerleaders “pay $2,000 a month plus the uniform, traveling fees, bows and a lot more.”

All Star Cheer is expensive compared to VHSL cheer due to more training time, better equipment, and professional coaching staff. Even though your likelihood of getting into All Star Cheer is greater, the high cost barrier stands in the way to many potential cheerleaders. VHSL cheerleading offers high school cheerleaders an opportunity to experience at least half of the feel of a cheer competition.

All Star programs face off with different programs from across the state and across the country in front of a panel of judges. This is kind of similar to high school cheer competitions where VHSL schools that are close to each other or in the same county compete against each other through district and regional competitions for the chance to attend the state tournament.

However, there are a few differences in All Star versus VHSL cheer competitions. High school cheer uses a chant, pom poms, and signs as well as stunts, tumbling, and dance. All Star Cheer focuses more on stunting, tumbling, and dance. Cheerleaders on both the high school and All Star cheer level must have positive and engaging facial expressions, have sass, and maintain the hype during every step in competition.

The size of the audience varies greatly between All Star and VHSL as noted by freshman Savanna Fregnan, Varsity Cheerleader with five years experience on All Star Cheer.

“I am not really nervous to perform during [VHSL] competitions because I did All Star, which had packs and crowds of people in the stadiums. So competing in high school cheer doesn’t really make me nervous since it’s not as much people that I perform to,” Fregnan said.

When it came to the difference between the two types of cheerleading, Fregnan spoke of All Star Cheer. “The team environment is definitely more like… I feel like its more team work-motivated, and its definitely more competitive which I like,” Fregnan said.

All Star Cheer has more cheerleaders and coaches working together to clean up and smooth out the choreography. High school cheer has a limit on team size, creating a smaller team than those on All Star. The smaller teams often make it easier to cooperate with and choreograph routines.

All Star and VHSL cheerleading have their differences and are for different athletes with different goals, but both offer plenty of opportunities. Even though All Star focuses on professional-level and VHSL focuses on school spirit, both leagues give cheerleaders unique ways to grow and improve.

Varsity Lewis Cheer vs. All Star Cheer

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