Prep, Novice and Elite are the three kinds of All Star programme. They sit alongside the level number, not inside it — so a team is either a Prep team at some level, a Novice team at some level, or neither, and those are genuinely different commitments even at the same number.
The thing worth knowing first: these describe the programme, not your child. A Prep team is not a team of weaker athletes. It is a different offer, usually built for families who want their child in the sport without the full commitment that the top tier asks for.
Prep
Prep exists at the lower levels only. In the list Athelos uses, that is:
- Level 1 Prep
- Level 2 Prep
- Level 3 Prep
It is generally the lighter-commitment entry into competitive cheer. Exactly how much lighter — how many competitions, how much travel, how long the season runs — varies by gym, so it is a question to ask yours rather than one to read off a page. Any site that gives you a single confident answer is guessing about your gym.
Novice
Novice also exists only at the lower levels:
- Level 1 Novice
- Level 2 Novice
It is aimed at athletes who are new to competing. Like Prep, what it involves in practice is set by your gym.
Elite
Elite is the one that catches people out, because it is not a word most gyms say out loud. Elite simply means a team that is neither Prep nor Novice. If someone names a level with nothing after the number, they mean that level Elite. These are the Elite levels:
- Level 1
- Level 2
- Level 3
- Level 4
- Level 5
- Level 6
- Level 7
That is why Elite runs all the way from the bottom of the sport to the top: it is not a difficulty tier of its own, it is the absence of the other two. A team at the bottom of that range and one at the top are worlds apart in difficulty and identical in classification.
What to actually ask your gym
Three questions get you most of the way: which level and which tier is the team, how many competitions are in the season, and how much of it involves travel. The tier tells you which conversation you are having; your gym tells you what it costs you in weekends.
Inside Athelos, the tier is not something a coach types in separately — it follows from the level itself, so a team’s level and its tier cannot end up disagreeing on your athlete’s record.
What Athelos does for families →