All-Star vs. High School Cheer: What's the Difference?

In middle school, I had a lot of disputes with my peers over whether cheer should be considered a sport. I would always have to give the same arguments about the athleticism that goes into cheer, the competitions and showcases, etc. But every argument had one thing in common: all-star cheer. In my school, not many people knew how that differed from school cheer. In fact, not many people knew that a club version of cheer existed to begin with!

In recent years, the question of whether cheer should be considered a sport has become pretty confusing. With the growing popularity of the sport and the rise of different “branches” of cheer, it has become more and more difficult to classify it into one category. Through Title IX, sideline cheerleading is not classified as a sport, but according to the International Olympic Committee, all-star (competition) cheerleading is.

All-star cheer and sideline cheer are two different things, making this issue, again, quite confusing. There are also other variations of the sport, such as stunt, which makes it more difficult to place cheerleading as a whole into one category.

To (partially) address this issue, I’ll be going over some of the key differences between high school and all-star cheer.

School/Association: One of the more obvious differences between the two branches is that sideline cheer is associated with a school, while all-star cheer isn’t. One thing that many people fail to realize is that all-star cheer doesn’t require any actual cheering whatsoever, and that a typical all-star performance is very different from that of a high school routine. All-star teams also don’t cheer on the sidelines, which brings me to my next point…
Performances: High school competition routines typically consist of two different sections: a cheer and a music portion. The cheer portion is exactly what it sounds like, consisting of a cheer filled with stunts, jumps, and tumbling skills. The rest of the routine utilizes similar skills, but music plays over this portion. All-star cheer is different, since a typical routine has music and lacks a cheer section.
Level Systems: High school cheerleading will typically have 3 different levels: Freshman, JV, and Varsity. District and regional competitions tend to pool teams into the same respective categories (e.g. Varsity competes against Varsity). This can give some groups within categories greater advantages than others, since skill sets may vary from school to school. All-star cheer differs, since it consists of 7 standardized levels that athletes progress through as their skills advance (similar to gymnastics). Competitions also take levels into account when scoring, meaning that teams will only be scored relative to other teams within their levels.
Competition Floor: From my experience, this is surprisingly uncommon knowledge, since I thought the difference between a spring floor and a dead-mat was well-known. Basically, a “dead-mat” is a large, hard, paneled mat that spreads out across the floor, while a “spring floor” is the same thing with springs underneath. Spring floors are used in all-star cheerleading, and they allow for greater jump height and less joint strain. Dead-mats are used in high school cheerleading, and they are much harder to jump and tumble on.
Uniforms: This one is more of a generalization, but all-star uniforms tend to be more showy, often making use of bright colors and rhinestones. In some cases, all-star uniforms can be cropped, but the style ultimately depends on the team. In high school, however, the rhinestones are less common – though, they do appear occasionally. High school uniforms also aren’t cropped, since competitions tend to be much stricter about uniform policies.

Another thing I would like to address is that all-star cheerleading is much more common than many people realize. It has over 150,000 participants as of 2024 and, in my humble opinion, it is one of the most entertaining sports out there. If you’re new to the cheerleading world, you might need to watch some performances to fully understand how all-star performances work. If you need recommendations, some of my favorite teams include Cheer Extreme Code Black, Stingrays Orange, and TGLC, among others.

Although I didn’t hit every difference between the two, I hope this was helpful for understanding the basics!