Recruitment Games

The struggle to keep athletes in your gym

By JoAnna Haugen

CBN Feb/Mar 2011

An all-star gym with world-class coaches, top-notch facilities and the best choreographers can exist only if there are athletes.  In an age where gyms are pinching their pennies, and each athlete is more financially important than ever before, the task of recruitment has become difficult—and at times controversial.

Recruitment Runaround

Regardless of where gyms are located, the most popular and effective tool for athlete recruitment is still word of mouth.  An extension of such recruitment is a referral program where current athletes are rewarded for recruiting new athletes. All-star gyms can also blanket neighborhoods with flyers, set up street signs and create exposure through community service and other events as advertisement for their product.

However, according to some gym owners,  problems arise when recruitment crosses the line from harmless advertising to obstruction of the sportsmanship and goodwill that all-star cheer was built upon. Some have witnessed other owners, coaches, parents and athletes openly recruiting at competitions by using banners, flyers and T-shirts that advertise the gym, its successes and information about tryouts. Many gyms have even resorted to direct recruitment from the competition. “I witnessed one gym owner walk through my [gym’s] fan section and have conversations with some of my families about her recent gym expansion and the addition of new coaches,” says Kelley Bennett Frakes, owner of Platinum Cheer Stars in Petersburg, VA. And this sort of recruitment isn’t just targeted at younger athletes. “Our Adult Coed team once came off the mat after performing, and within five minutes, one of our male cheerleaders had been offered a coaching position by another gym right in front of his team  and coaches,” says Amy Dupuis, head coach and director of project management for Cheer Central Stormz in Lancaster, MA.
“It’s so tacky and unnecessary to do this sort of thing anytime and anywhere, but especially at a competition,” says Tanya Rossi, owner, director and head coach at Envision All-Star Cheer & Dance in Hudson, FL. Rossi’s sentiment is echoed by coaches across the nation, and the problem has become so severe that at least one company,  The JAM Brands, has enacted a policy that forbids explicit recruitment at its all-star cheer events. “The JAM Brands strives to run the best and most organized, stress-free competitions,” says co-owner Dan Kessler. “When a program’s at an event and they feel that someone’s recruiting their kids—either blatantly or subtly—it puts that program on edge, greatly decreasing the chance for a wonderful experience.”

John Newby, executive vice president and general manager of  Varsity, agrees. “We strongly discourage any blatant attempts to recruit,” he says. “We believe this is more of an exception than a rule and most gym owners follow a general code of professional conduct. In cases where it becomes an issue or is brought to our attention, we address it immediately.”

Fierce Competition

When it comes to poaching athletes, cheer owners and directors note two specific problem areas in their communities:  other all-star gyms and local high schools.  At Carolina Crossfire Cheer in Columbia, SC, owner and coach Angela Singleton Koenig says other coaches have contacted her athletes via e-mail and Facebook.  According to Dupuis, other programs have handed out flyers in the parking lot and even used scare tactics by telling her athletes that their gym  is going out of business.   Although the gym  takes steps to stop these attempts, she says,  “We prefer to stay out of the drama.”
At Express All Stars in Grand Junction, CO,  gym owner Tena Preuss says they have more problems with the high school teams than with other all-star programs. She’d like to see student-athletes be able to participate in both activities, but even after concerted efforts to coordinate the programs so cheerleaders can take part in both, Preuss says schools often change their schedules, forcing the athletes to choose one or the other.  “I think the coaches in general need to work together and do what’s best for each individual student,” she says.  “If kids are super athletes and they can handle it, then they should have the opportunity to do both, they shouldn’t be forced to choose.”

Making the Gym Jump

Of course, athletes have choices when it comes to picking an all-star gym, and, inevitably, some programs choose to entice athletes with free tuition and greater exposure on higher-level teams.  “There will always be cheerleaders who want to be part of something big,” Frakes says.  “The biggest discount, the biggest team, the biggest gym, the biggest competitions. Honestly, I can’t compete with the incentives that larger gyms offer.” For Koenig, recruitment of her best athletes is a double-edged sword.  As a newer gym in the industry, Carolina Crossfire Cheer doesn’t offer any Level 5 teams, so athletes with advanced skills eventually reach a plateau there.  “Other coaches have offered our higher-level athletes free tuition or other incentives,” she says.  “If the athletes choose to leave for that reason, we’re proud of how skilled they’ve become.”
Generally speaking, the recruitment of athletes tends to be more of a parent issue than an athlete-driven one, since they’re the ones ultimately footing the bill.  “We don’t get involved in that decision process,” Preuss says,  “because I firmly believe that the kids will be successful where they want to be, not where they’re forced to be.” Others, like Tanya Gilmore, co-owner and head coach of the senior team at Eastern Iowa All-Stars, deal with the matter directly.  “I’m very straightforward with parents, which is how I treat everything at my gym,” she says.  “I tell them that if they think they’re going to get a better gym and better team by joining another program, then they should give it a shot.”
For the most part, though, gym owners try not to spend too much time worrying about what other all-star programs are doing, but there are mixed feelings regarding whether athletes should be allowed to rejoin a gym once they’ve left for another program. Most follow a fluid policy, considering athletes on a case-by-case basis. These programs tend to welcome athletes back only with very rare exceptions.  At Gilmore’s gym,  allowing cheerleaders back has been good for business. “The people who’ve come back to us have become good advocates because they’ve been out there and tried other places.” However, others aren’t so quick to welcome. “We believe our athletes and parents aren’t just a tuition check but a family,” Rossi says.  “When you turn your back on your family and walk out our door, it’s not revolving—it’s closed.  You can’t just come and go as you please.”

Reclaiming All-Star Cheer

No one denies that unfair and invasive recruitment practices are currently taking place in the all-star cheer industry, but the good news is that most owners, directors and coaches are placing the majority of their focus on where it should be:  their athletes. “We take our competition very seriously and have hundreds of national trophies to show for it, but we’re most proud of the sportsmanship and positive attitude we instill in our teams, both on and off the mat,” Dupuis says. “It’s not [all about] cheerleading and trophies at our gyms.  It’s about spirit, confidence and a sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself.”

The JAM Brands Enacts Recruitment Policy

Two years ago, The JAM Brands incorporated a sportsmanship creed into its competition regulations and procedures. This creed requires all coaches, owners, directors and athletes to maintain proper conduct at all their events. Failure to do so may result in a point deduction, removal of the troublesome person from the event and disqualification.

This year, the company has taken an additional step and added a recruitment rule to that policy, which prohibits the recruitment of athletes and the promotion of specific gyms at its events. “Recruitment” includes handing out flyers detailing information about tryouts, gym locations, phone numbers, websites and other identifying information in the competition arena or parking lot, as well as wearing T-shirts with tryout dates on them. In addition, coaches, owners and directors are prohibited from talking to other athletes about attending their gym.

Recruitment at all-star events has become such a problem that some teams avoid certain competitions altogether. The rule was added once The JAM Brands found out that some gyms were using its events as a venue to obtain new athletes. “[We] didn’t want our events to become a breeding ground for recruitment,” says Dan Kessler, co-owner of The JAM Brands. “When we’re talking to a program about attending our events and they say they won’t come because of another program’s actions, that’s frustrating.”

The industry has been supportive of the sportsmanship creed and recruitment rule. Hopefully gym owners and coaches will keep recruiting efforts out of other competition venues as well.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Recruiting

DO
• Use word of mouth to get new athletes into your gym. Encourage your
athletes to tell their friends about your program.
• Advertise for tryouts on your own turf or at public places that harbor a
lot of foot traffic.
• Let your program speak for itself. If your athletes and staff are talented
and respectful, new athletes will be begging to be a part of it all.
• Post tryout information on your program’s website and social media
sites.

DON’T
• Pass out flyers detailing your team’s tryout information at competitions.
• Recruit athletes from other squads straight off the competition floor.
• Use scare tactics or bad-mouth other squads in order to gain athletes.
• Allow your athletes and staff members to wear T-shirts with tryout
information on them at competitions.
• Enter the fan sections of other teams with the intention of swaying
their parents to join your program.