I'm sorry that this a long version of the issues that we experienced here, but I just wanted to warn potential new families to the cheer gym in Norwood.
My daughter had been at her longtime cheer gym in Norwood for many years, starting on a mini team up to a junior level team.
She was extremely happy there and we were not looking to change cheer gyms in the slightest, until the owners turned out to be people who talked about their customers to other customers behind their backs lying and contributors to infighting.
They would talk about other moms/kids behind their backs, giving away their personal information that was thought to be private, and probably one of the worst things was giving away peoples health information as well.
****I heard about other moms that would try to be helpful when asked by the gym owners and give constructive criticism back to them when asked, and when they didn't like that constructive criticism, it was turned around and the owners would blame these particular moms for the issues at hand. It was never the 2 gym owners fault, NEVER, not once. I do admit, I am one of the almost half of the gym that left last year after being told things would change, year after year. However, they never did. ****
If you were to ask the owners why so many people left the gym, you will not be told the truth. The truth is that they are not good cheer gym owners, PERIOD. Why else would there be a mass exodus of 50+ kids?
As an example of how NOT concerned the gym owners are, some of the families who left the gym were hoping to sell back the girls competition uniform to the new kids that joined the gym this year.
Since the gym/families purchase the competition uniform for 2 year cycles, there is still 1 year left to compete in them. If the families that left can resell the uniform back for half the price, it's a win win for the departed parent and the new parent. However, the owners told the departed parents that they could not do this, and furthermore told the new families they shouldn't talk to all the families, around 50+ of us. I find it strange that the owners will ups #1 be so insecure that they had to tell the new families not to talk to the departed ones and #2 wouldn't watch out for the new families and help facilitate that for them to save a little bit of money in a very expensive sport. It looks like they are just watching out for themselves, AGAIN!
Like the time when the majority of parents didn't want to go to Nashville for a competition so we could all cut back and save a bit of money since we were going to Orlando in May. The gym owners didn't want to listen to their customers, so off to Nashville we go, only to spend thousands of dollars and do horribly. Some of the teams did so bad, that when it was time for awards ceremony the 2 gym owners were nowhere to be found, NOWHERE!! They didn't go to the awards ceremony to support their own teams! Additionally, come to find out that the major reason we were there was because their husbands wanted to go to Nashville, THEIR HUSBANDS, not the cheer teams.
One of the issues that sealed the deal for us leaving the cheer gym was the boosters money not being returned to the parents that earned that money.
Many parents asked for THEIR money back that THEY earned, not the owners and were told 'sorry' and 'what are they going to do, sue me?'
If asked where that money went, possibly $1000's, 'it's gone'. Renting a gym space cost money, why wouldn't they use money for rent that wasn't theirs?
I know this is a long rant, but I just wanted people/customers to be aware that it won't be very cheer-ful at that cheer gym in Norwood.
To all the new families, I hope you haven't signed your contract yet. If so, I'm sorry. read more