The Ultimate Combo

Find out how East Elite and Celebrity Cheer joined forces to become the new and improved East Celebrity Elite.

By Kathleen Hager

Cheer Biz News April/May 2010

“What’s most impressive to us is [how our athletes] cheer one another on as if they’ve been together for a lifetime. After just a few short months of working together, it’s impossible to tell who came from which gym.”— Cassie Bienvenue, co-owner

Merging businesses can be a tricky matter, but merging cheer gyms can be even trickier. An all-star program isn’t merely a business housing owners and employees—it’s a second home and family for its athletes and everyone else involved. And with a home and family come feelings of loyalty, love and pride. Uniting two separate gyms means uniting two sets of athletes, parents, coaches and owners who all have a personal attachment to their respective gym. A venture so complicated and even emotional shouldn’t be taken on lightly. Luckily for East Elite and Celebrity Cheer, merging to form East Celebrity Elite wasn’t only a great business success, it was also the start of a bigger, happier family. And East Celebrity Elite co-owner Cassie Bienvenue took some time out to tell CBN all about it.

Both programs have been big players in the all-star industry for the last decade, East Elite out of Tewksbury, MA, and Celebrity Cheer out of Bow, NH, and Montvale, CT. While their facilities were in different states, these programs were only 10 miles apart and very competitive. “There had always been a big rivalry, yet a healthy one, between our two gyms,” says Bienvenue. “While our teams would battle it out on the competition mat, there was also a sense of mutual respect. [We] spent 10 years often vying for the same set of titles, Worlds bids and divisional wins. In recent years, there was always local talk about our two gyms joining forces.”

The talk wasn’t always between gym outsiders, either. Throughout their last year as separate programs, mutual support seemed to be growing and staff members kept mentioning the idea of a merger. “At the 2009 Worlds, we stood side by side and cheered on one another’s teams,” Bienvenue says. “Our respective staff members and coaches were constantly talking with one another about how great it would be if our two gyms were one. Shortly thereafter, we four gym owners began meetings: Cheryl Pasinato and Linda Bernis of East Elite and Colleen O’Shea [and me] of Celebrity.”

Of course, a merger doesn’t happen overnight, and the East Elite and Celebrity owners thought it would be best to start off with a slow, introductory process. “We began our meetings simply as talks and exploration, with nothing definitive necessarily in sight,” says Bienvenue. “Gradually our talks progressed to the point where we all felt comfortable with one another, and that a combination could provide our athletes and teams with the best of both worlds. The success of our teams and the happiness and enjoyment of our athletes has always been at the forefront of our decision-making. We felt that joining forces would allow our athletes to compete at a higher level than what either gym could provide separately—to compete with the most successful programs in the nation.”

Perhaps the most obvious first decision to make was where the programs would merge—a no-brainer for the new program. “East Elite’s facility [in Tewksbury] is simply better suited to our needs,” says Bienvenue. “The ceilings are higher, there’s room for expansion and the rent is reasonable.” Even though East Celebrity Elite will call the Tewksbury location their home, Celebrity’s two other locations in New Hampshire and Connecticut will stay open and all teams there will perform under the ECE name.

While making the decision to merge may be a fairly painless one, figuring out how to break the news to everyone it will affect is sometimes the most difficult part of the process. “Toward the end of summer [2009], we announced to our athletes and families that we’d decided to merge our gyms,” says Bienvenue. “Both [programs] had gym-wide meetings to make the announcement at the same time.” Fortunately for the new East Celebrity Elite, the combined program was met with excitement and support. “The response from both sides was overwhelmingly positive,” she says. “Any issues have been minor, and we remind everyone that there’s a bigger picture. To us, the colors or location aren’t nearly as important as the people involved. We can honestly say that our kids and staff are very happy. This is the big picture, and most parents have agreed.”

Just as the owners slowly and carefully made their decision to merge, they decided to make a slow, careful transition for the athletes, as well. “We chose to make year one of ECE a more gradual process,” Bienvenue says. “While we combined several teams in the gym (Mini, Tiny and Large Junior), we also left many untouched. Because we formed our new gym after tryouts and a summer of training, we decided that our kids and teams had developed bonds that we wanted to leave unchanged.”

Drastic changes too soon may have been difficult for the newly merged athletes, so ECE decided not only to keep most of the original teams together but also to allow athletes to maintain their “roots,” as Bienvenue says. “Both gyms are proud of where we came from, and we’ve expressed to all of our kids that we don’t want them to lose that pride. We welcome kids to wear their old EE and Celeb clothing to the gym and trade with one another.” However, loyalty to their original programs hasn’t dimmed their excitement for a bright future as part of ECE. The trick was putting it all together. “We decided early on that our kids would be happiest if they didn’t feel like they were leaving either Celebrity or East Elite,” she says. “This is the reason we chose to combine our logos and names. We chose to use the Celebrity colors and the EE facility so each group of kids would maintain some consistency.”

The owners also introduced athletes gradually. “Prior to [combining], we went to Six Flags as a team,” says Bienvenue. “We also visited one another’s practices as spectators. Before moving into the same facility, we encouraged the kids to tumble together at open gyms at either Celebrity or East Elite. They became fast friends and have really enjoyed getting to know one another.”

Athletes who were competing against one another just last year are now part of a new, tight-knit family. “We credit this to our veteran athletes,” Bienvenue says. “They immediately took a liking to one another. At our first event [of the season], we were thrilled to see the support each team gave one another, and we were incredibly pleased with the athletes who make up our three Level 5 Senior teams. What were formerly Celebrity’s Large Limited Coed, East Elite’s Small Senior and Celebrity CT’s International All-Girl teams stood together as one unified group. They walked with each other through warm-ups and sat directly in front of one another for each performance. Considering that these three teams have a history of competing for the same sets of Worlds bids (and still were), we couldn’t have been more pleased with how they represented our gym.

“What’s most impressive to us is [how our athletes] cheer one another on as if they’ve been together for a lifetime,” Bienvenue continues. After just a few short months of working together, it’s impossible to tell who came from which gym. The kids already sleep at each other’s homes, hang out together in their spare time and support each other in practices.”

As wonderful as their athletes’ responded to cheering together, ECE’s merger could never have been such a success without the support of both staffs. Fortunately, because both programs were in the same area and each had employees who had served as NCA instructors with members of the other’s staff, many coaches and other employees were friends or at least acquaintances, according to Bienvenue.

Regardless of previous relationships, the four owners wanted to make sure both their staffs would be able to work closely under one roof. “We made certain that all staff members and coaches would continue on in their current positions and would welcome and stand behind our merger,” says Bienvenue. “They’re all willing to learn from one another and to utilize one another’s strengths in an effort to better their own teams. Fortunately for us, EE and Celebrity have different strengths and weaknesses, and we recognized this from the start. EE has always been a very clean and technical gym. Celebrity has always been a performance-based gym. By merging these two styles, we have an opportunity to take the best of each and put them together to produce something much greater.”

After combining approximately 30 coaches and instructors, ECE has been able to take their teams to the next level. They now have three head tumbling instructors and have added Craig Lemay to their staff to be in charge of stunting. “Specifying one person to be in charge of our stunting has helped our athletes significantly,” says Bienvenue. “Our teams, though not all are combined, are already reaping the benefits of working with new coaches and tumbling instructors.”

Though the process wasn’t easy, having both sets of athletes and coaches work together and share their cheer styles enhanced their competitive standing and set the bar for the 2010 season. “At our first competition of the season, we were able to secure three out of the four Worlds bids available,” says Bienvenue. “I see our current teams as being more skilled than last year’s teams. In addition, practicing together has allowed them to push one another, in a competitive but healthy way, to levels I don’t believe we would have reached separately.” While the new program’s goals for this season mirror those set by the original gyms, the ultimate goal is to incorporate Celebrity’s ability to entertain and East Elite’s cleanliness and technique into a brand new style.

Helping the athletes and staff sync up was the owners’ main focus, but they also had to define their own roles in the new business if they were going to keep it all running smoothly. “We’re fortunate to now be in a position to split the workload of running a gym [between] four people,” says Bienvenue. “Early on, we spoke about one another’s strengths and used that information to divide the workload. While our roles overlap and we’re all responsible for the day-to-day operation of our gym, we’ve delegated certain responsibilities to [each] individual. Linda and Colleen work closely together to manage our accounts and books. Colleen and I each coach multiple teams. Linda handles all staff scheduling and payroll. Cheryl does a tremendous amount of marketing. Both Linda and Cheryl are also actively involved in judging, locally and nationally. I handle most of the parental communication, and all four owners oversee every team in the gym.”

Aside from making sure everyone was getting along and improving the program, ECE worked on rebranding itself so the industry would begin recognizing it as one entity. “Both EE and Celebrity were gyms known by their logos, and we’ve tried to do the same with the new East Celebrity Elite logo,” Bienvenue says. “We’ve also done this in all of our cheer music by using the same or similar voice-overs, etc. We’re in the process of consolidating our websites, too. We’re aware that it will take time for the new gym to [surpass] the old, but we’re in this for the long haul. We believe that in a few short years, people will be much more focused on East Celebrity Elite as opposed to what either gym did in the past.”

East Celebrity Elite is still in the process of truly becoming one single program, but they were prepared for the journey. If you’re considering a merger, Bienvenue stresses one major necessity: respect. “It will work if everyone is willing to make compromises and there’s a very strong level of mutual respect [between] programs,” she says. “The staff is crucial, and they need to be 100 percent behind any merger for it to [be successful]. Our staff members check their egos at the door when they come to work. There’s something to be learned by everybody, even if you’ve been coaching for decades. As long as that mentality exists, I think a merged gym will succeed. When one gym puts its interests above the other, this is what can make for unhappiness or disappointment. We treat EE and Celebrity with an equal amount of respect, and we consider [this] our future. We’ve found this merger to have so many positive benefits that there has been very little, if any, looking back.”

East Celebrity Elite

1500 Shawsheen St

Tewksbury, MA 01876

978-863-9808

www.celebritycheer.com