Here are 2 more stories that we wished didn’t exist.

Jones County Junior College in Mississippi & West Coast Extreme in Oregon

Justin Carrier from NCA sent the following email recently

Coaches,

The new Championship season is off to a great start here at NCA/NDA!  We’ve launched our new websites, NCA.varsity.com and NDA.varsity.com, and we’re gearing up for our second event of the year this weekend.

Many of you will be receiving our NCA/NDA Competition and Safety Guideline Book in the mail over the next several days. This year’s Safety Guideline Book includes the AACCA rules (for school teams) and the USASF rules (for AS Cheer and Dance teams). To view an electronic copy of the AS cheer section of this book, CLICK HERE.

An important point I want to emphasize is that the 2008-2009 USASF rules published in this book do NOT reflect any updates and clarifications being made by the USASF since July. Coaches will still be responsible for understanding all of the updates as they become available. In the upcoming weeks, I will be updating you with important rule adjustments and clarifications.

In the meantime, continue to practice safely and prepare for an amazing season.

Thanks,

Justin Carrier
Executive Director – Strategic Development
NCA/NDA

USA Cheer is putting together a “Dream Team” to represent the United States at the International Cheer Union World Cup.

USA Cheer Press Release

Science Daily has published on article on cheerleading risks and injuries.

Science Daily

The National Cheer Safety Foundation (NCSF) has declared today, August 9th, as National Cheer Safety Awareness Day. The NCSF has also released a report increasing the number of catostrophic injuries since 1982 by 30.

30 Unreported Catastrophic Injuries

There’s no, or at least very little, secret about Varsity Brands’ dislike of, and brewing rivalry with, JAM Brands. The question I pose is who is being targeted by the Varsity led International All Levels Championship.

JAM Brands

JAM Brands is the obvious choice due to their recent acquisitions positioning them as the only entity that can pose a serious threat to the Varsity empire. The IALC qualifying events, which are dominated by Varsity Brands’ events, could pull some teams from JAMfest and friends in hopes of qualifying for a (theoretically) prestigious end of the year competition. The IALC also serves as a preemptive move against the JAM Brands starting their own similar event.

CheerSport

Quick, name a large competition dominated by level 1-4 teams held at the Georgia World Congress Center. CheerSport is the obvious choice, but isn’t this what the IALC is going to be? CheerSport’s bread and butter is lower level teams; remember, they are the group that introduced levels, and they have a very large, prestigious event at the Georgia World Congress Center. What better way for Varsity to steal some business from CheerSport.

Of course, this goes completely against my theory of CheerSport already being a Varsity Brand.

The new IALC website is up at all-levels.com. The flash intro is a little slow, but it seems fine otherwise.

The Fab 5 Movie debuts tonight on Lifetime. Check you local listing for the channel and time. In case you don’t know or forgot what I’m talking about here’s a Newsweek link.