Giant absolute piece of shit and 99.99% of the reason it’s such a giant grift that systematically cover up sexual abuse…
I think the problem is, you think “modern cheerleading” has been a good thing for the decades that this one piece of shit controlled everything tangentially associated to it.
The article likens Webb’s influence to a scenario where the inventor of basketball not only held camps but also owned Nike, hosted the NBA Finals, commentated on games, and ran USA Basketball.
And:
Understanding Varsity’s market dominance can be challenging, even for those invested in cheerleading. Many may not even realize the extent of their involvement with Varsity and its sub-brands, as reports suggest that Varsity controls over 80% of the cheerleading market.
One significant quote from the article states, “As it snapped up rivals, Varsity did not rename its new acquisitions. Rather, it maintained existing brands in order to keep parents in the dark about how much of their money was now flowing to the company, according to a draft version of a 2018 presentation prepared by investment banks working on behalf of Varsity.”
Jennings was a budding star, and at 13 she joined a competitive gym called Rockstar Cheer in Naples, Fla. She was the golden child of her coach, Carlos Realpe — even if he sometimes pushed her too hard. Like when he ran practices late into the evening on school nights. Or when Jennings pulled a hamstring and he threatened her position on the team unless she pounded ibuprofen and powered through the pain. Or when he screamed and threw shoes and water bottles. (Realpe denies throwing things; two other team members supported Jennings’s account.) Parents of other children complained about Realpe’s coaching style, but Jennings brushed it off.
Her junior year, Jennings slammed into a teammate’s shoulder during a basket toss, snapping her head back and giving her yet another concussion — her seventh. Soon afterward, she got sick from an unrelated illness and became depressed. Baker sent her an email cutting her from the squad. She could have lost her scholarship, too, had the athletic director not intervened on her behalf.
Two years ago, at 21, Jennings retired from cheerleading with a chronic hip injury, occasional slurred speech and intermittent headaches that she called “stingers.” She resolved to seek treatment for a traumatic brain injury. It was only when she was out of cheer entirely that she realized her difficult career in the sport was more than just a random string of bad luck. Jennings’s experience — of injury, grueling hours and emotional abuse — is not an uncommon one in the vast world of American cheerleading. “Every day I make more and more pieces click,” she said.
Despite Varsity’s early opposition, 36 states and the District of Columbia now recognize cheer as a sport. It remains an outlier: None of the National Federation of State High School Associations’ other 17 member sports have this patchwork state-by-state designation, said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, the chief executive of the federation. Nor is there another sport where a for-profit company like Varsity is so intricately linked to its governance, she said. Varsity remains a corporate partner with the federation. “I find them to be a wonderful company to work with,” she said.
Sports-medicine experts have routinely proposed making cheer a sport in the remaining states and at the college level, which would mean improved access to certified and qualified coaches, athletic trainers and medical care, limits on practice time, improved facilities and inclusion in injury-monitoring data.
From 1980 to 2001, emergency-room visits for cheerleaders soared nearly 500 percent. Over that same period, competitive cheerleading was responsible for more catastrophic injuries to female athletes than all other high school and college sports combined, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research. And those statistics included “bases,” the girls at the bottom of the pyramid, who were at lower risk for head injuries. Restrict the data just to flyers, the girls being tossed in the air, and injury rates became “semi-suicidal,” according to Dr. Robert Cantu, medical director of the research center.
“The flyer was the riskiest person in all of women’s sport,” he said recently. By some metrics, the risk of catastrophic head and spine injuries was higher in cheerleading than in football.
At practice that year, as the team prepared for Varsity’s upcoming college nationals, Parks stood atop the pyramid, ready to execute a high front flip into the waiting arms of her squad. A teammate held onto her feet too long. “So instead of flipping, I just dove — like into a swimming pool with no water.” She landed on a two-inch-thick foam mat on top of concrete, breaking her neck in five places.
When teammates visited her in the hospital, they found a stranger. Most of Parks’s hair had been shaved for surgery and the rest sat in an awkward mullet, with a huge scar running around the top of her head. She underwent three operations, had a permanent shunt placed in her spine to drain fluid from her brain and endured years of physical therapy.
Despite Varsity’s early opposition, 36 states and the District of Columbia now recognize cheer as a sport. It remains an outlier: None of the National Federation of State High School Associations’ other 17 member sports have this patchwork state-by-state designation, said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, the chief executive of the federation. Nor is there another sport where a for-profit company like Varsity is so intricately linked to its governance, she said. Varsity remains a corporate partner with the federation. “I find them to be a wonderful company to work with,” she said.
Sports-medicine experts have routinely proposed making cheer a sport in the remaining states and at the college level, which would mean improved access to certified and qualified coaches, athletic trainers and medical care, limits on practice time, improved facilities and inclusion in injury-monitoring data.
Later, litigation would allege that the new safety organization was independent in name only: Some U.S.A.S.F. staff were full-time Varsity employees who “volunteered their time”; Varsity bought its web address; and the two organizations shared office space.
Goodness, this should really be the focus instead of Charlie Kirk, Pickleball, or speculating about sex offenses (on the last matter he’s already transitioned cheerleading from a male-only sport for chrissakes). And that’s just from the first quarter half of the article.
“Speculating” is a weird word choice after multiple federal investigations…
Have you ever considered asking questions instead of assuming you already know everything immediately after reading a 3-5 sentence social media comment?
You do understand that almost nothing can be explained like that, right?
Yeah in hindsight I probably shouldn’t have used “speculating about”. But my point remains that these are eclipsed by the far bigger and similarly life-altering pain he is inflicting that isn’t sexual abuse when you have this gargantuan monopoly putting them through torture, self-reinforcing groups that are the only life you’ll ever know and shuns those who blow the whistle, and taking away their brain function through chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
But my point remains that these are eclipsed by the far bigger and similarly life-altering pain
But those I juries are happening more in traditional cheer trying to emulate “competitive” and that’s the fault of schools letting them do complicated throws/stunts.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t be upset about the insane 500% increase in serious injury, I’m saying you’re not blaming the people responsible for the vast amount of them.
You don’t understand this, because again, you just learned about it from what I had posted on social media and I stantly decided you somehow knew more than the person who has been aware of this for more than 45 minutes.
You did follow links and read articles, props for that…
But still, ask more questions, don’t assume 10 minutes makes you an expert
I agree that it’s their fault too. I’m saying that that (what to target to remedy the impacts) 's and the far more widespread and intense trauma (the impacts) is what people should be focusing on. Instead they’re focusing on the more vanity points of the headline like Kirk pickleball, though I agree that said points are very amusing.
Specifically, Varsity Spirit took issue with a recent court filing in which Sellers alleged the company served “as a central player in the scheme to host exploitative events where minor athletes were subjected to sexual abuse and assault under the influence of drugs and alcohol.” Clare also took issue with another allegation in the court filing that Varsity Spirit’s environment “promoting free access to underage minors for the purpose of sexual solicitation was the method by which Defendants recruited new gym owners, coaches, choreographers, videographers, and other affiliated personnel.”
All a creep has to do is cut Webb a check, and you could open a team that young girls and their parents would do anything to be a part of.
A lot of those coaches were just randos in their 20s/30s who wanted access to athletic kids with zero oversights and frequent hotel trips.
There’s been a bunch of lawsuits, but Varsity tries to hold zero accountability despite being the oversight body that’s actediting the coaches/gyms.
To think that as these children “filter up” to the more elite teams the behavior stops would be incredibly naive. Hell, even just the social media pipeline from it is bad, but absolutely no one is looking out for these kids in real life either.
That sounds about right. Running an organization for kids and teens is always going to be either an eternal battle to keep pedos out or the creation of a den of pedos. I’ve got no judgment for orgs that fight that battle sincerely, and understand that sometimes they’ll fail, but any that don’t fight that battle are going to leave me suspicious of the leadership’s motivation, even though it’s damning regardless.
The dead asshole basically created a “competitive” version.
So while the people in this might start out doing a school team, they’ll using go “competitive” as soon as able and work really hard at it and often quit normal cheer.
It’s essentially the same as the “dance moms” shit. It becomes the central aspect of these kids lives. I don’t know what age ranges they have, but it’s like jr high or even younger.
But the existence of “competitive” makes traditional cheer try to emulate it. There’s been like a 500% increase in serious injury because everyone is trying to do crazy shit
I don’t know anything at all about cheerleading in general or what it means for it to be modern a cheerleading. I don’t watch sports, I don’t have kids, and I’ve never heard of this guy. The statements from him about other people and other people about him saying enough. I mean, he’s getting lauded by Posobiec - he must be completely awful.
“Stunts” where people are thrown which is very dangerous.
The outfit change to sports bras and booty shorts.
Both direct results of “competitive” cheer ran by this guy filtering down to actual cheerleading done along with a sport.
Culturally off the field…
A bunch of impressionable and attractive cheerleaders went from having school employees responsible for them, to any random person with the money to cut a check to Varsity (this guy’s company).
Even if not to groom them for abuse, a lot of people want to be seen as “cool” and create an environment for drinking and drug use, blurring the lines between adult and child in the process.
It’s incredibly problematic but since it’s also so cult like, very few people have spoken out about it. By the time you see the bad parts, you’re already “hazed in” and don’t understand how fuckendup shit is.
Yeah…
Giant absolute piece of shit and 99.99% of the reason it’s such a giant grift that systematically cover up sexual abuse…
I think the problem is, you think “modern cheerleading” has been a good thing for the decades that this one piece of shit controlled everything tangentially associated to it.
And:
https://www.thecheerbuzz.com/the-dark-side-of-cheerleading-new-york-times-investigates-varsity-spirit/
But I do want to applaud you for actually using a question mark, even if it seems to have been rhetorical.
Oh wow, that’s what not enforcing anti trust law does to a country
Your post links the 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/magazine/cheerleading-jeff-webb.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VVA.cJzt.B1vLYzHL5868
Goodness, this should really be the focus instead of Charlie Kirk, Pickleball, or speculating about sex offenses (on the last matter he’s already transitioned cheerleading from a male-only sport for chrissakes). And that’s just from the first
quarterhalf of the article.“Speculating” is a weird word choice after multiple federal investigations…
Have you ever considered asking questions instead of assuming you already know everything immediately after reading a 3-5 sentence social media comment?
You do understand that almost nothing can be explained like that, right?
Yeah in hindsight I probably shouldn’t have used “speculating about”. But my point remains that these are eclipsed by the far bigger and similarly life-altering pain he is inflicting that isn’t sexual abuse when you have this gargantuan monopoly putting them through torture, self-reinforcing groups that are the only life you’ll ever know and shuns those who blow the whistle, and taking away their brain function through chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
But those I juries are happening more in traditional cheer trying to emulate “competitive” and that’s the fault of schools letting them do complicated throws/stunts.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t be upset about the insane 500% increase in serious injury, I’m saying you’re not blaming the people responsible for the vast amount of them.
You don’t understand this, because again, you just learned about it from what I had posted on social media and I stantly decided you somehow knew more than the person who has been aware of this for more than 45 minutes.
You did follow links and read articles, props for that…
But still, ask more questions, don’t assume 10 minutes makes you an expert
I agree that it’s their fault too. I’m saying that that (what to target to remedy the impacts) 's and the far more widespread and intense trauma (the impacts) is what people should be focusing on. Instead they’re focusing on the more vanity points of the headline like Kirk pickleball, though I agree that said points are very amusing.
inb4 guy turns out to be a major sex offender and/or a pedophile
Nope, four years too late:
https://apnews.com/article/sports-lawsuits-business-tennessee-sexual-abuse-5095b649ad29005c84aaa06c6dc107bb
All a creep has to do is cut Webb a check, and you could open a team that young girls and their parents would do anything to be a part of.
A lot of those coaches were just randos in their 20s/30s who wanted access to athletic kids with zero oversights and frequent hotel trips.
There’s been a bunch of lawsuits, but Varsity tries to hold zero accountability despite being the oversight body that’s actediting the coaches/gyms.
To think that as these children “filter up” to the more elite teams the behavior stops would be incredibly naive. Hell, even just the social media pipeline from it is bad, but absolutely no one is looking out for these kids in real life either.
That sounds about right. Running an organization for kids and teens is always going to be either an eternal battle to keep pedos out or the creation of a den of pedos. I’ve got no judgment for orgs that fight that battle sincerely, and understand that sometimes they’ll fail, but any that don’t fight that battle are going to leave me suspicious of the leadership’s motivation, even though it’s damning regardless.
So wait, they monetized cheerleading? Like in schools public schools too or just colleges and professionally?
The dead asshole basically created a “competitive” version.
So while the people in this might start out doing a school team, they’ll using go “competitive” as soon as able and work really hard at it and often quit normal cheer.
It’s essentially the same as the “dance moms” shit. It becomes the central aspect of these kids lives. I don’t know what age ranges they have, but it’s like jr high or even younger.
But the existence of “competitive” makes traditional cheer try to emulate it. There’s been like a 500% increase in serious injury because everyone is trying to do crazy shit
wait he was the one that got people to doubt their commitment to Sparkle Motion?
Didn’t King of the Hill do an episode about the change in cheerleading?
I don’t know anything at all about cheerleading in general or what it means for it to be modern a cheerleading. I don’t watch sports, I don’t have kids, and I’ve never heard of this guy. The statements from him about other people and other people about him saying enough. I mean, he’s getting lauded by Posobiec - he must be completely awful.
The two big things you’d see on court/field is:
“Stunts” where people are thrown which is very dangerous.
The outfit change to sports bras and booty shorts.
Both direct results of “competitive” cheer ran by this guy filtering down to actual cheerleading done along with a sport.
Culturally off the field…
A bunch of impressionable and attractive cheerleaders went from having school employees responsible for them, to any random person with the money to cut a check to Varsity (this guy’s company).
Even if not to groom them for abuse, a lot of people want to be seen as “cool” and create an environment for drinking and drug use, blurring the lines between adult and child in the process.
It’s incredibly problematic but since it’s also so cult like, very few people have spoken out about it. By the time you see the bad parts, you’re already “hazed in” and don’t understand how fuckendup shit is.