[Pirate Pal]

I have been a KAPOS judge for many years and, as such, I feel that there people on here that have no idea what they are talking about in refering judging rules. There are several points that are being missed by posters about the DQ situation:

1. I did see Belfry perform their entire routine during Tech showing the mounts twice to the tech judges. At that point, the tech judges signed off on Belfry's tech sheet that everything was legal. This was incompentency on the tech judges part and they should be held accountable for their failure to comply with their duties, that they are trained for and get paid to do at competitions.

2. Not every sponsor attends KAPOS judging clinics or are KAPOS judges, so they do expect the tech judges to do their jobs and catch anything that may be illegal so that they can change it before they get on the floor. Mrs. Casey has been a judge for many years, but due to unforseen circumstances, did not get to attend the clinic this year. As every judge knows, there a rule changes every year and the judges rule book is very hard to read and interpret. You actually watch videos that demonstrate rule changes at the clinics to just to make the ruling clear. Maybe kapos needs to send their training video to each and every sponsor every year so that they can see a visual of the legal and illegal stunting rules.

3. I have always been told in every judging clinic that, as a judge, we get 1 chance and 1 chance only to see a routine. If 1 judge thinks that they may have seen something illegal and the other judges did not, that we, as judges, are to GIVE THE GIRLS THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT!!! I have NEVER judged a competition where 1 judge thinks they seen something and they ask for a personal video camera to be brought down to watch a replay of that routine!! If this is the case, then it should be only fair to rewatch each and every routine to see if they missed a deduction or anything illegal that any other squad may have performed.

4. I do believe that Belfry and JC should be named co-champions and each squad be able to compete at State. At some point Kapos must bear the burden of their faults and not be so worried about looking incompetent. If, at any time, the tech judges would have done the job they were there to do, Belfry would have changed their routine on the spot and still competed.

5. Just for the record, the tech judges did OK Belfry Middle School's routine during tech judging and was going to let them compete with an illegal stunt also. It was caught by judges sitting outside of the tech area and Belfry was informed of it right before they took the floor for judging.

I am proud to be a kapos judge and will continue to be, but I do believe that this entire situations lies solely on kapos' shoulders and they should do what is right for the kids.

And, yes, Belfry did have the majority of the fans there that night and it was a great thing to see everyone out there supporting the girls, including the 2 Southside squads from the Belfry area.

For those of you who might be thinking that this is Mrs. Casey, I can assure you that it is not. Everyone from Belfry knows who I am, I was a Belfry Cheerleader when I was in high school, I had a daughter who was a Belfry Varsity Cheerleader for 4 years, I have a daughter who is an 8th grader on Belfry Middle Varsity and I have a daughter who cheers on the Southside Wildcat squad.

Congratulations to all sqauds that competed. There was a tremendous amount of talent shown at the Expo Center.