American Youth Football (AYF) understands the importance of supporting young girls in the community through sport and with that they started a sister league to AYF devoted to its cheerleaders. American Youth Cheer, governed on safety, sportsmanship and full participation offers membership to all cheer, dance and step teams associated with an American Youth Football team. However, independent teams, not affiliated with AYF/AYC, are encouraged to sign up today to become a part of the AYF family.
Membership Structure
AYC Membership is configured into two independent structures: Local & Championship.
Championship Membership Structure pertains to those leagues that plan to participate in AYF/AYC Regional and National Championships and other pre or post-season competitions. These leagues are required to strictly abide by AYC rules and regulations and age divisions as outlined in the Official American Youth Cheerleading Rulebook. AYC follows The National Federation of High School Association (NFHS) rule book and the additional supplement AYC rule book. Both rule books should be followed together at all times.
Local Membership Structure stays true to the AYF/AYC objective of remaining independent and supporting all teams regardless of their competitive intentions. AYC strongly encourages all cheer teams to participate in outside cheer competitions as well as the expectation of them to participate and support our own AYC local, regional and national competitions. We encourage all associations to contact their league/conference to confirm the AYC cheer calendar for the dates and schedule of all AYC competitions.
Rules & Regulations
AYC rulebooks are only available to our members and can be found atwww.MyAYF.com. Members will get a user ID and password and can use that to navigate the site and get official AYC rulebooks. To obtain extra rulebooks for $5.00 each please contact AYC or send payment to:
American Youth Football and Cheer
1000 South Pointe Drive TH-9
Miami, Fl 33139
Please note: The general football rules as stated in the Official Football Rules and Regulations regarding cheerleading at football games which apply to players will also apply to the cheerleaders (with the exception of weight or weigh-ins and the rules of contact). Certain rules will be superseded by the Official Cheer Rules and Regulations. Governing of AYF/AYC Leagues occurs as stated in Section 3 & 4 of the Football Rules Section.
AYC also uses the rulebook from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Through communication, education and recognition, the NFHS Spirit Association supports coaches of middle and high school cheerleading, pom, dance and drill teams, by assisting them in risk management, good sportsmanship and citizenship, and professional development.
For more information on the National Federation of State High School Associations rules and regulations please visit nfhs.org.
AYC Divisions
CHEER:
AYC Divisions/Team Age Breakdown
Competing Up
In order to allow all interested athletes to participate, athletes may compete in an older age division with the following restrictions:
Athletes may compete in an older age division ("compete up") ONLY if it is NOT possible to create a team in the division that corresponds to their age level.
Athletes may NOT compete in a younger age division without approval from AYC.
There is an “Age Waiver Request Form” that an association may use for an age waiver. The form is located on myayf.com.
Cheer Skill Divisions: White, Red and Blue Skill Division Guidelines are listed in the AYC Rule Book. AYC teams participating in the region and national competitions will need to declare a team’s skill division before the start of the fall competition season.
Dance/Step Age Divisions
