The Washington, DC Department of Parks and Recreation held a citywide Cheerleading and Pom-Pon competition that had all the potential to be a great event. It fell flat when they changed the rules of the competition to ensure the two-time citywide champions, Shining Stars, were eliminated from the competition.
Hosted at the Stoddert Recreation Center, hundreds of Washington, DC residents from all over the city cheered their local girls as they shouted, tumbled and did lifts. Smiles were the order of the day. More than that, every team cheered for every other team each time. "We are proud of you!" rang out between team cheer routines.
And then it hit: the two-time city-wide pom-pon champions, Shining Stars, were told that the rules to the competition had changed and the routine they had rehearsed for six weeks put them in the other division, cheerleading, two days before the event. It was too late to change their routine and they were unprepared for the new category.
"We didn't stand a chance in the division they put us in," said the pom-pon captain for Stoddert's Shining Stars Selena Shea. "K'Yanna Blackwell should get fired." K'Yanna Blackwell was responsible for organizing the event.
The Shining Stars were in tears and the pom-pon championship went to another team. On top of that, after denying the Shining Stars their opportunity to compete fairly based on a rule change, there was no copy of the new rules available at the event for anyone to review.
"Stoddert is Fenty's rec center and she disrespected it. She was not supporting the team. Probably she did change the rules to stop Stoddert." observed Ms. Shea.
Ms. Blackwell told Rosendale to say their chant five or more times and didn't ask anyone else to say theirs. Shining Stars got a third place trophy after the event was finished as consolation. Pom-pon captain Selena Shea said. "I feel horrible about competing again, but I am going to compete anyway even though there was a rule change and it might have been because of my team."
This issue is not to take away from the great work and energy of the girls at the competition. Before the unfair ruling, the event was fun and it was great to see the girls doing their routines. The Tigers were another team to watch. Here's a photo of them lining up before competing.
Try Varsity.com for all things cheeleader.
Rosedale Recreation Center had its own cheering section, and after seeing them do lifts and tumbles it was easy to see why. They clearly have been working on their routine for a long time and did a tremendous amount of work on it. The whole event could have been fantastic for everyone. No one is helped by reducing the level of competition.
But the Stoddert Recreation Center's Shining Stars were treated unfairly and then no rules were shown at the event to demonstrate that the truth was, in fact, being told.
4 comments:
Give me a break. You cheated those girls. You did not need to recategorize them at all. Other pom-pon teams did lifts and you didn't kick them into cheer.
This is just one of the many reason why Kyanna should be fired. She doesn't know what she is doing and she only cares about her Scorpion teams. She has no knowledge of cheerleading really and her teams are somewhat ok because she begs all-star girls to be in her program. The cheerleading program will NEVER prosper with her as the head of it. She was kicked out of the Xquisite allstar program because of her nasty attitude towards kids and parents and many kids have left in the past to join other teams. This blog is so interesting..
I think the star did a okay job but y'all are taking this to a whole nother level. Why on earth would you want someone fired when we are in a recession. I mean its already hard to find jobs and you all want someone fire for a competition thats suppose to be fun. I think if you where in pom pom or cheer you still would have lost. It didn't matter anyway because she was not the one judging. I think your girls did okay but they weren't the best. It's other competitions out there so practice hard and get your first place next time.
K'Yanna Blackwell should be fired for changing the rules at the last minute to exclude the Stars from the pom-pon tournament. She is telling people that it was based on a rule change but that is not true. The rules she points to are dancing rules, not pom-pon.
There were as many teams as trophies until K'Yanna Blackwell decided to make sure the Stars didn't win anything by putting them in cheer.
I can't believe this is the first time she has acted like this. Our tax dollars should not be spent by someone who decides who can win the competition.
And if K'Yanna Blackwell was worried about the recession, she should have put her professional duties ahead of her bias.
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