Cheerleading gyms take fight to court
By: Alan Suderman
Examiner Staff Writer
September 3, 2009
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A cheerleader fight in Montgomery County is taking the call to "be aggressive" to a whole new level.
Competition in cheerleadingis normally limited to girls and some boys jumping, tumbling and flying for spots on private teams that can cost $3,500 a year to join.
Or it's those private teams, with names like "Rapture" and "Tiny Tantrums," competing for bragging rights in the multitudes of competitions held around the country each year.
But now three Montgomery County cheerleading gyms are locked in an ugly legal battle that involves accusations of poaching cheerleaders, stealing funds, setting up false Web sites and starting a whisper campaign that a rival coach is a pedophile.
The lawsuit, which involves a well-known international law firm that represents corporate giants such as Microsoft and Boeing, shines a light into how competitive the business side of cheerleading can be.
"Cheer ... is a wonderful sport for your child, but you know, it is a cutthroat industry," said Wendy Bender, a parent of a 9-year-old who has been a member at two gyms involved in the suit. "Everybody wants to win; it's just like the movie 'Bring it On.' "
The legal fight started whenXtreme Acro and Cheer sued one of its former coaches, Nicolas Sweeney, for breach of contract. Xtreme's owner, Judi Eicher, said Sweeney was the "face" of the gym who stole money and poached the gym's cheerleaders for a new facility he was starting on his own, called Fearless Allstars, while on the clock.
"He just ripped her off," said Sarah Hall, Eicher's attorney. "He tried to walk out the door with her business."
But Sweeney is pushing back with a counter-suit of his own. He sayshe left Eicher's Rockville gym because it was poorly run, and now his competitors, Xtreme and its new partner, Gaithersburg's Dream Allstars, are trying to shut down his new business.
Sweeney said he's been the victim of false rumors spread by a coach at Dream that he has inappropriately touched children.
"Any male coach in this type of industry, that can pretty much kill them," Sweeney said.
Bender said the staff at Dream told her about the rumors before she left that gym and enrolled her daughter at Fearless, which is in Gaithersburg. But she said the rumors have proved to be "totally unfounded."
"I totally trust this gym, I totally trust Nick," Bender said. "I would leave my child with him in a minute."
Sweeney's lawsuit also accuses Eicher's son of setting up sham Web sites that would direct people looking for Fearless' Web site to Xtreme's Web site.
Hall works for Winston & Strawn LLP, which has 12 worldwide offices and a client list that reads like a Who's Who of Fortune 500 companies. She called Sweeney's counter-suit "frivolous" and added that Eicher didn't know what her adult son, who lives in Florida, did.
Hall also pointed to Dream's efforts to have a cheer team made up of special-needs children, which has drawn national media attention, as proof of the good work the gym does.
Paula Kearney, whose daughter is on that team, said the owners of Dream have been "wonderful."
"It's the best thing we've been involved in," she said.
