Who can make Senior Elite?
The requirements to make Senior Elite are very strict and precise. It is an honor for anyone to make the team at all considering the difficulty and strength they need to be considered one of the best. Erica Englebert has made Senior Elite two years in a row in the Kernersville, North Carolina location of Cheer Extreme.
Erica Englebert had to advance in many of her skills, including her tumbling, stunts, and just overall attitude plus dancing/motions to get on Senior Elite. It is such a privilege for someone to be put on Senior Elite (Large Senior Level 5) considering they won Worlds in 2010 and have been in top three since they originated in 2005. "The girls at Cheer Extreme work really hard to do their best in every competition they attend" said Riley Gillespe.The requirements for Senior Elite are very strict. Erica, being a flier, needed to improve on her flexibility and form for everything before being put on Senior Elite. To make the team they required to have at least a full and multiple jumps to a tuck for their tumbling. For stunts, they are required to be strong if they're a base or back-spot and again tops are required to be flexible and be able to perform doubles out of one leg, tic-tocs from stretch to stretch, and kick/switch kick/hitch kick double for tosses. Since Senior Elite is large they can only have up to 40 girls on their team making it even harder for new people to be placed on the team. Overall, Senior Elite is one of the hardest teams to make in the country.
A lot of other teams dislike Senior Elite and just Cheer Extreme in general. Since Cheer Extreme is so successful and some other teams that aren't as fortunate to win Worlds or even get the opportunity to go to Worlds are jealous or envious of them because of their talents. Cheer Extreme is hated by many teams for the reason that they are said to "let the fame get to their heads" They did take advantage of their fame and recognition from winning Worlds the past year but they started to gloat and talk about other teams and how they don't compare to them which irritated many people and cause multiple controversies."They are such a hard team to beat so many other teams get jealous and mad because they lose" said Maddie Lieb. Also, Cheer Extreme has been at the Majors which only 8 teams were lucky enough to get invited to an they are recorded and put all over You-tube by professionals including photographers. It's pretty normal for them to hear that people hate them as well as being obsessed with them.
| Cheer Extreme as a gym has 4 different locations across the country. Senior Elite is located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Cheer Extreme's most famous gym is the Kernersville gym because one that is where Senior Elite is and two because that has the most level 5 teams of all of the other Cheer Extreme gyms. "A lot of people don't live in the main location so they wanted to get more kids so they expanded" said Kristina McKittrick. Some of the other teams that are level 5 include Mini Elite, (Ages 4-6) Youth Elite, (Ages 7-10) Junior Elite and Junior CoEd Elite (Ages 11-14) and Small Senior X, Medium Senior X, CoEd Elite, Medium CoEd Elite, and Senior Elite. (Ages 12-18) Erica was not put on Senior Elite in 2009 because her immaturity considering that she was only 12 and that she just didn't have the qualities that they lacked that year. She was put on CoEd Elite which is the next best team on Cheer Extreme's organization. CoEd Elite is Unlimited CoEd 5, which means that there are allowed to be more guys than girls. Basically, Cheer Extreme has enough teams to have girls and boys at any levels to make teams.
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Cheer Extreme is Senior Elite is said to practice 5 out of the 7 days a week getting only Friday's and Saturday's off. Their head coach, Courtney Pope is very strict and that is said to be the reasons behind all of their successful teams and many talented girls. To be on Senior Elite they need to be dedicated and devoted to their team and work as hard as possible to gain back the World Title in 2012 that they lost in 2011. Senior Elite received third behind their rivals World Cup Shooting Stars and Maryland Twisters F5. Cheer Extreme was devastated when they received third, mainly because they had worked so hard all year and getting third compared to winning worlds the year before is probably a big change and might of made the trip to Orlando not as enjoyable. "It is normal to be upset but poor sportsmanship is not acceptable in any situation and is embarrassing" said Maddy Lampert. Senior Elite was said to be sore losers and having poor sportsmanship because of how they reacted to the award session. They could have been more respectful and happy for Maryland Twisters F5 to win the 2011 World Title but they simply left the stage after getting their third place trophy and clapped from the audience. Where as Maryland Twisters F5 received third in 2010 and stayed and congratulated Senior Elite on their World Title. Sometimes the pressure of winning from their coaches may have gotten the best of them.