The End of Valley Cheer Athletics

It has been a bit of a crazy month around here for October.  A lot of stressful events in a short amount of time, but we have survived them all, and I think we are all in a better place.

Valley stars Cheer athletics

Genevieve has cheered with Valley for the last 6 years, she loves cheer, everything about it!  But I got her fired from her team, yes me!   I had some questions for the owner Judy James, about a few expenses we had paid and why we were paying them.  She decided instead of addressing most of my concerns she would just fire Genevieve instead.  I think this is about the worst business decision that someone could possible make and it just shows why she continues to have lower enrolments and girls leaving for other clubs by the flock.  I hadn't really understood this until I tried to have a conversation with the woman about her business practices, instead of answering questions and remaining calm, she threated to kick a chair out from under me, for daring to question her ability.  Thankfully I was able to calm her down and get her to listen to my concerns, but in the end this did not accomplish much.

We had paid a huge amount for summer choreography each athlete paid close to $40 an hour to be there in the summer, with the promise of a fancy choreographer coming up from the US to teach the choreography.  When she did not have the proper work visa for the American to come up and work organized he was unable to come up and teach choreography.  Instead of passing along the refund thought we as parents were given nothing but having Judy by herself choreograph and teach the girls their routine.  She managed to hire another choreographer to come in and teach her other team Junior 3 but did not get anyone else in for youth 2 or Junior 2 even though they paid the same fees.  She even brought in her 3 month old and 2 year old grandchildren on one of the days, no other adult present in the building, but claimed that her grandchildren did not affect her ability to choreograph the routine.

We were paying an extra $22 a month for a strength and conditioning class that we were not recieving.  After I brought this to her attention, she did manage to change this so that the girls would be receiving this, but did not refund parents for the month and a half they were paying for a service they were not receiving.  

Once I was looking at all of this I noticed that Genevieve teams she was on was paying almost $2 an hour more for being in the gym then any other team.  She could not explain why, as they had the least amount of time in the gym alone, they had fewer coaches, they pay more then both level 1 and level 3 teams.  She decided it would be a good idea to blame this on the office manager.  Why she could not take personal responsibility of her own management and ownership of her own gym is beyond me.  As an owner you should be aware how much you are charging and why you are charging these fees.

Finally she had a team meeting and she decided that we should all by a $300 hairpiece for all of the athletes as this would help them look professional.  Now we can afford $300 for a hairpiece, but why on earth would anyone buy a $300 hairpiece!  And would that money not be better spent on some expertise coming to the gym, an expert tumbling coach, dance instructor, stunting instructor.  Man $300 each could sure be spent on something more benificial then hair.

After she had the team meeting with Genevieve team, she had a team meeting with the Junior 3 parents.  In this meeting she requested another $25 a month from each of the parents because a parent had come in demanding she make the teams even in what they are paying ha ha ha.  How she can add additional costs onto parents after they already signed a contract is beyond me.  Again super bad decision making on her part, the parents may pay it this year, as they do not want to loose out on all the money they have pain into the season, but I can guarantee they will be looking around next year.

After she kicked Genevieve out she had to combine the two teams Genevieve was on into one team, again poor decisions are costing her a huge amount of money.  But now she is expecting the parents of the junior 2 team who were not going to as many competitions to have to come up with an extra $2000 for the year to go to a competition in Portland and tacoma that they were not budgeting for, not to mention the $300 hair!  

Genevieve wrote a letter to Judy and did not get response.  I wrote a letter to every single cheer parent on valley, and had a huge response, I can tell you that I think Judy has sunk her gym by doing this,

Hi Judy 

This is Genevieve,

I don't think you realize what you did does not only effect my mom, it effects me too. I know how much you love coaching, I really do. You told me for the six years I have been on Valley, that we are a happy family, I honestly believed you. You have betrayed me and I can't think of you the same anymore. I looked up to you and compared myself to you, you have failed, betrayed and hurt me so much I can't tell you my pain.  I had a hard time believing that you could do this to me. You may think that it's not my concern and I shouldn't be writing this letter, that I'm not involved, well you got me involved the moment you kicked me off the cheer team. It's the bitter truth that you shouldn't ignore cause what you did, you can't change.  

(why I liked you)

You always made the funniest jokes and everyone laughed. You made cheer fun, there was a bond of love between coaches and kids. We weren't a team, we were a family, no one liked one more than another and you made that happen, you love all your kids at valley.

(what did I do? )

you know I was looking at everything and trying to figure out what I did to deserve this, and then it came to me... I didn't do anything wrong... You did though, you thought that everyone would just hand you their wallet and you could take what you wanted and no one would notice, well people did, you need to realize that my family can pay for that kind of stuff, but some families can't.  I wish that you could have figured this out with my mom, instead of acting so rashly.  I assure you these are all my words, they came from my head and heart.

please think about how you have hurt so badly an eleven year old

from, Genevieve Reimer 

We ended up finding a new cheer gym that we are thrilled with!  Genevieve is having so much fun, and learning exponentially.  A funny thing that happened is that before I told Gigi about what judy did, she said to me, mom I think I am ready to change cheer gyms.  I panicked a little and she said, no mom its okay nothing too bad has happened, but I can just see that there is a huge difference in the quality of coaching I am receiving at my private tumbling at Wayland and my coaches at valley.  I am ready to leave and get better coaching.  It was so hard to keep it from her but we were driving to her recital for her concert with Roy and Rosemary where she was performing in front of 600 people, not the time to tell her the news

So this is Genevieve doing her first spotted tuck on the floor.  She is doing amazing!  she is loving the extra coaching she is getting, and the confidence they put into her.  This one was pretty messy, but she went for it!  She just got back from tumbling today and she was doing some pretty amazing tumbling!  She is definitely going to kick some but this year.

Advise to any prospective parents wanting to try Valley Stars, now called Valley Cheer Athletics, run as fast as you can.  She has refused to refund me any of the $2000 she has collected from me for this season.  If you are in the gym, do not pay for anything in advance, you will never get it back.