Open Letter From Bill Seely: Embracing Positivity, Sportsmanship, and Community

OPEN LETTER FROM BILL SEELY: EMBRACING POSITIVITY, SPORTSMANSHIP, AND COMMUNITY

Dear Varsity Spirit Community,

Our unwavering commitment is to always foster an environment that is positive, uplifting, empowering, and inspiring to the athletes, coaches, families and fans for every experience at Varsity Spirit and Varsity All Star events. We understand and appreciate the remarkable efforts that each athlete puts into their craft and the endless support that parents, coaches, and supporters provide along the journey to lift each other up and create lasting memories.

Individually, cheerleaders and dancers are strong, disciplined athletes, but when unified as a team they become a cohesive force to achieve shared goals. Together, we are a CommUNITY that uplifts one another, champions teamwork, and recognizes the value of hard work and determination. With the goal of unity in mind, we want to ask you to join us in helping to create a healthy environment that will enable young people to thrive. The only way this is possible is if all supporters decide we are in this together.

Varsity Spirit will do our part to make sure we are providing the best environment we can for our customers. We are committed and focused on embracing sportsmanship and positivity. We will always welcome feedback to help create better experiences for our customers. However, we will not tolerate any behavior that seeks to tear down, belittle, or ridicule teams or participants. Harassment, division, and aggression have no place within our community.

In the era of social media, where voices – including those who are not spectators, coaches or participants – can be both uplifting and hurtful, we urge each member of our community to magnify the positive voices and channels by sharing positivity using #VarsityCommUNITY. We can’t control what anyone outside of our community says about teams or participants, but we can control whether we let those negative voices in. We encourage you to MUTE or BLOCK any negative channels and to remember that you do not have to engage with negativity on social media. It’s a choice we can make together to foster an online environment that mirrors the camaraderie and sportsmanship we express offline.

Remember, our strength lies in our unity. Together, we can drown out negativity by amplifying positivity. By supporting each other and focusing on the positive aspects of our sport, we can create an atmosphere that’s not only welcoming but also inspiring for everyone involved. 

If you’re in, please use the hashtag #VarsityCommUNITY across social media this competition season as we create a respectful and positive environment for athletes across the globe, together. To learn more about Varsity Spirit’s sportsmanship standards, click here to visit our CommUNITY page on Varsity.com.

Bill Seely
PRESIDENT, VARSITY SPIRIT