From its humble, almost accidental beginning as crowd entertainment, Cheerleading had evolved into a national program with multiple associations in a highly competitive environment and considerable room for continued growth. Today, UCA is a competition held in Disney World, Orlando, FL where all of the east coasts best teams come to compete.
The true explosion of the sport began in the 1980's when cheerleading evolved into a gym based activity. "In the 1980's, gymnastics found itself in hot water. Stories of poor coaching circulated in the press, and many schools stopped offering the sport because of insurance concerns. A large number of gyms channeled their energy into cheerleading" (Torgovnick 19). "While sports like football and basketball stagnated years ago, cheerleading is attracting new participants by the truckload; last year the four millionth cheerleader joined a squad. The spirit industry has doubled in value over the past five years, to become a $2 billion empire" (Torgovnick 14). Then, in the late 90's, new gyms popped up all over the country specializing in tumbling and stunting for cheerleading. They enrolled girls and quickly picked up the competition model, forming all-star teams. Students could cheer for their school teams as well, but many chose to be only all-stars, with no sideline duties" (Torgovnick 19). In 2000, there were 250 gyms around the country that focused exclusively on stunting and tumbling skills for cheerleaders. Today, there are more than 2,000" (Torgovnick 14). Fueled by stories of poor coaching and insurance concerns, the demise of gymnastics programs at the high school level led to the growth of cheerleading. Many gyms changed their focus away from gymnastics and into acrobatics for cheerleading routines and also adopted the competition model forming all-star teams. According to Smith, roughly 25% of gyms in the country coach levels 1-5 at the competitive All-Star level today (105).
