Establishing A Successful Junior Program

Angela King Designs is thrilled to produce many of the junior cheerleader program costuming for NFL and NBA teams across the United States, including the Chicago Bulls, the Arizona Cardinals, the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. Right now the NFL youth programs are getting pumped for their field performances and other fall activities. One of the favorite parts of their experience is receiving their AKD Role Models uniform!  

Is your team developing a new program or enhancing your junior cheerleader or dancer program? With a 25-year history in the professional cheerleading industry, AKD founder Angela King-Twitero literally "wrote the book" on the business of cheerleading including a special chapter dedicated to youth programs. AKD's talented Style Pros can lead you, not only in junior costuming creation, but also development of your program to maximize profits and keep your participants happy and returning year after year. 

From "The Business of Professional Cheerleading," enjoy this excerpt from Chapter 6, page 54.

JUNIOR PROGRAMS

Running a junior program is a bit like operating a dance studio. There are classes, costumes, and a performance. In most cases there is one flat fee for a child to be a part of the junior program. The one scheduled fee will cover all the activities the child will participate in, as well as their junior costume. Or, if needed, the fee schedule could be broken into two parts: the clinics/game package and the costume priced separately. This will give returning parents the option of purchasing a new costume each year. The numbers of children who participate can vary from a small number to over 500.

Classes or clinics are set up to teach the children the routines they will perform at halftime of a game. The cheerleaders are the instructors and should be paid for their teaching time. You will need a large facility, like your practice field or gym. Also, break the children up into appropriate age groups. Each group will learn a dance number and perform it as a part of the show. When all is said and done, with the addition of the professional cheerleaders, you will have a spectacular halftime show for a game.

The costumes should reflect your big cheerleader costumes but be age appropriate at the same time. I costume quite a few junior programs with our Role Models division, and the main goal is to make the juniors feel just as special as the professional cheerleaders but keep the costumes appropriate to their age and developing bodies. When purchasing the costumes, buy them at a low enough rate to be able to mark the price up when selling to the parents. If you purchase the costume for $40.00, sell the costume for between $60.00 and $70.00.


Receive the full article by purchasing The Business of Professional Cheerleading book by Angela King-Twitero

Learn more about AKD junior costuming at www.akdrolemodels.com

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