Tryouts

EPIC Cheer & Dance Information Packet

Welcome to the 2024-2025 EPIC Placement!!

Full Season Teams

The full season teams are the premier teams in the program. Placements/Tryouts are in May and the season ends in May . Membership on these teams comes with a high commitment level. Practices are 1-2 times per week with an additional mandatory tumbling and stunting class.

Mandatory skills camps and choreography are scheduled periodically as well. Once chosen, these teams will represent EPIC at national level events and compete for bids to year end competitions such as Summit, THE ONE and US Finals. Attendance, behavior and parent involvement are also very closely monitored and along with skill progression.

Team Formation and Levels:

The teams we will have available this upcoming season will be directly to the skill and experience of athletes who are new and returning. Multiple factors come into play when deciding teams and team levels. Not only are we looking at current skill level but we also need to consider the progression of our athletes. Additionally, we want to compete in levels that ensure competition (after all, we are COMPETITIVE cheerleading). We prefer to present our athletes with the challenges, experience, and thrill of competing.

Allstar Cheer teams are divided into (2) AllStar Prep level 1& 2 teams, (2) Novice Level 1 and (2) Performance Recreation . We start team placement as early as age 3 (must demonstrate being able to follow directions) through to age 18. Age division are Tiny, Mini, Youth, Junior, and Senior. Allstar Cheer is a full year commitment. We will train all of our teams as full-year teams. During the summer, all teams will practice once per week. Extra practices are also scheduled for Choreography camps, as well as extra practice times as needed.

Crossover is a term used when an athlete is on more than one team. The availability of crossing over to another team is determined by individual team needs. You will be asked on your tryout form if you would like your child considered for a second team. If your child is not selected for a second team, this does not mean that your child is not skilled enough, but is directly related to what the team needs are.

While both skill level and experience are factored into team placement, many families will prefer Prep of Novice levels as there are fewer time and financial obligations. You will be asked on the placement form what your preference are.

Team Evaluations and Placement

We do not take the placement of athletes on team lightly. A tremendous amount of time and effort goes into making the best choices for the individual athlete, all while focusing on what will be best for the teams. We feel this process is critical for our program.

Evaluations - Starting in mid-May, there will be multiple times for the month of March to come into the gym and work on various skills such as tumbling, stunning, jumps and flexibility. During these times, we will be able to work with and evaluate your athlete's current skills, as well as how quickly they take corrections in order to progress.

These evaluations are also important for returning athletes as we may need to evaluate them in a different position as well as seeing how different athlete groups work together.

During these evaluation sessions, your athlete will learn a dance for placements as well as be able to work with our coaches on what will be the best tumbling passes for them at placements. Potential flyers will have the opportunity to come in for flex classes to work on body positions.

Friday, May 17, 2024 Level 0 (ages 3-7 & beginners)

6pm - 8:00pm

Saturday, May 18, 2024 Level 1 (ages 6-18)

10am - 1pm

Saturday, May 18, 2024 2 & 3 (ages 6-18)

2pm-5pm

Saturday, May 18th Stomp N Shake Ages 12-18)

5pm-7pm

LEVEL CALLBACKS:

May 20th-22nd

Email will be sent out to cheerleaders who will need to return back for CALLBACKS.

Apparel will be plain black t-shirt, plain black shorts, black, white, or gray cheer shoes and cheer bow of any color in ponytail. No Jewelry! Make-up is optional!

Registration Fee

$90

May 22 - June 7th by 6pm

If you register by June 4 at 6pm. The Dance Link with emailed out around 9pm.

All Parents must Register & Pay Registration Fee.

Click on REGISTER NOW

Team Placements - After placements, our coaches will spend a few hours discussing what team placement is best for each individual athlete. Both the information obtained during the evaluations as well as the actual tryout is used. Athletes will be informed

Competition Attended:

As a gym, we attend a variety of both USASF-affiliated and Independent Event Producers events.

Prep and Novice teams competes 5-6 times and Elite teams 7-8 times per session. Typically, the competition season starts in November and can go as late as May.

Most of these events will be local, meaning Raleigh, to Charlotte, but some could require traveling to places such as South Carolina, Asheville, and Virginia.

Attendance to Practice:

It is mandatory that your athlete be at practice. There are some times that sickness or other reasonable commitments may require a practice to be missed. Please make sure that you communicate with coaches if your daughter/son will miss practice. All athletes that are sitting out due to an injury are still expected to attend practice.

The following are not acceptable reasons to miss practice: homework. social events such as parties, or other sports team commitments. It is fine if your athlete is on other sporting teams, however, except for extreme situations that have been pre-approved, their EPIC Cheer Dance team has to be their top priority. Athletes are expected to learn good time management skills in order to complete homework, and other commitments, without it interfering with practice times.

Attendance to practice the week before a competition is mandatory! If, for any reason, an athlete is unable to make the practices the week before a competition, it is the coaches discretion if an alternate will be placed in their spot.

Pulling your child from from practice for behavior problems, not only is punishing them, but is putting the whole team at a disadvantage. Instead, work with the coaches and let us know how we can help with alternative solution.

During the summer, we have a little more leniency that your child misses practices due to family vacations. We feel this is important for families but ask that you inform us of any scheduled time they will be away. The gym will be closed for week of July 4th. Choreography camps are mandatory.

Never cheered before? No worries…we love to train from the very beginning so that your child grows up loving cheer the way we do!

Our staff is here to teach you all that you need to know to be a successful and competitive all-star cheerleader.

We promise you’ll have an amazing experience.

Welcome to EPIC Cheer & Dance Academy !

EPIC Cheer & Dance Information Packet

Welcome to the 2024-2025 EPIC Placement!!