Rhody All Stars Cheerleading

My daughter signed up for Rhody All stars in the spring of 09. Initially she loved it until the owner, Lance Merry, in a tempermental hissy fit, publicly humiliated her and verbally abused her in front of her whole team for a misunderstanding that was actually my fault (I am her mom). She left the practice in tears, totally humiliated and consequently never wants to step foot in there again. Mr. Merry was completley unprofessional, disrespecful and verbally abusive to a 14 year old child. When confronted, he did not apologize or say there was a misunderstanding or anything like that. He continued to pull his little hissy fit with me. I, however, am not a shy 14 year old who is intimidated by an overgrown child. I was paying a lot of money for her to attend this academy and I expect her to treat people with respect and in turn, I expect her to be treated the same way. Rhody All Stars is run by a bully who likes to intimidate little girls. Keep your kids away.

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As a former All Star cheerleader I believe that a team is like a family and should be nurtured and encouraged in that way. Yes during competition season taking vacations can be detremental to pulling a perfect routine that week at competition but it is not a reason to humiliate and belittle peoples choices and actions, especially when that person is a young girl. That gym uses fear tactics to make their cheerleaders do what needs to be done and safety is of little concern. While they do get great talent for being one of the first all star teams in Rhode Island it doesn't mean that the coaches are what make that gym great. There are wonderful all star gyms through the New England area, where safety an actually learning from your mistakes make you become a better cheerleader. And I wasn't on some mid level all star team. I was on a top ranked all star team with many nationals and grand champ wins under my belt as well as a few worlds bids. Cheerleading is supposed to be about having fun not being afraid to mess up because mistakes are a part of life. Ultimately a lot of girls goals in cheerleading is to become a college cheerleader and no one from this gym has ever made it to that level. Cheer moms who attack you for making your opinion and trying to help out other mothers who don't want their daughters to be in a volatile situation are completely out of line and only go to show what type of people use this gym. My best advice would be to sit in on a practice of different gyms if possible and get a feel for how everyone acts with one another and then you will find a good fit.

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Both of you are true my daughter is on Rhody too and Lance can be a bit pushy. But You also should make a strong effort in making your daughter there on time everyday.But my daughter was coming from a little league team and when she went to rhody for the first year it was tough and her friends couldn't keep up with it and had to give up on the team because it was more challenging and it required more effort than little league. But maybe try her in a different All star Team other than Rhody. Maybe she will like it better. But he should have pulled her off to the side to instead of in front of everyone cause I would be embarrassed too.

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That's right, you do pay a lot of money to have your daughter on that team as do I and the rest of the parents who have children on the cheer teams at Rhody. When your child doesn't bother to attend practice (regardless of whose fault it is) the entire team suffers and those of us who go out of our way to get our children to practice, no matter what the circumstances, don't appreciate the fact that our children cannot practice 100% because parts of the team didn't bother to show up! Cheerleading is a commitment and a team sport; Lance and the rest of the Rhody coaches made that VERY clear from the get go. When you don't bother to send your child to practice (for whatever reason and please spare me about your vacation) you disrespect Lance, the coaches, the rest of the team and the parents who also pay a lot of money to have their children participate in this sport. Lance works EXTREMELY hard for his teams, as do the rest of the coaches, and the fact that you would go onto a public forum to try and humiliate Lance for your shortcomings is what is child-like. What misunderstanding is there? Your child missed a HUGE amount of practices, affecting the ENTIRE team, and you want to try and say that the coaches had no right to ask you daughter about it? You seem to forget that the other girls, including my daughter, witnessed what happened and to say you are over-exaggerating is putting it mildly. Both you and your daughter need to grow a thicker skin especially if you think you can go about making decisions(like not showing up for practice for weeks on end) that affect a large group of people and then expect that no one will call you out on it. If you couldn't commit to getting your child to practice then you shouldn't have put her on the team to begin with! Or did you just expect Lance to re-do the entire routine to find a place for your daughter who hadn't attended practice in weeks?!

All-Girl and Elite Cheer Mom