Parents At A Dallas Cheerleading Competition Got Into A Huge Fight Which Led To A Stampede

KHOU 11 - DALLAS — The annual NCA All-Star National Championship resumed Sunday, a day after sources said a fight among parents led to panic in Downtown Dallas at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. 

Dallas police responded to the convention center where sources told WFAA parents attending the cheer competition were fighting.

Numerous social media users expressed concern about a possible shooting, but police sources told WFAA there were no shots fired. Dallas police later confirmed Saturday afternoon on X that there was not an active shooter. In a press release sent out via email Saturday afternoon, Dallas police said officers responded to an active shooter call. Their investigation determined a fight between two people led to multiple poles being knocked down, which caused a loud noise.

This noise contributed to panic inside the building, prompting people to rush outside in a stampede, DPD said. According to Dallas police, there were multiple non-life-threatening injuries during the chaos. People were seen running across the streets of downtown away from the convention center, which is only a couple blocks away from WFAA.

No arrests have been made relating to the incident, police sources told WFAA.

The competition resumed at 8 a.m. Sunday with "with athletes and our crowd in good spirits," Varsity Brands, who run the NCA cheer competition, said in a statement. 

At first I wanted to laugh at the thought of fathers- grown men - throwing down at their daughters cheerleading competition, but then I watched that video of the little kid down on the ground in the fetal position at the start of that video and then what appears to be another kid caught in the middle of the scrum, and got sick to my stomach. 

This whole thing is just sad. 

On top of how embarrassing and depressing a sight that was to watch, it started mass hysteria and the (incorrect) word to spread throughout the convention center that there was an active shooter. Which led to mass panic, confusion, a stampede, and Dallas police resources and SWAT to show up on the scene. 

This kind of thing makes 0.0 sense. To me, or any rational, functioning adult. 

There is no place in society for this. 

(Sidebar - I don't have kids, but my business partner Bobby has two teenage girls who play volleyball competively in Ohio. Expect their games are never actually in Ohio. Every weekend they're in a different city around the country for a volleyball tournament. It's insane. I can't even imagine my sports leagues growing up being serious enough that we had to travel out-of-state multiple times per month to play. 

Anyway, every spring right around Easter-time there's a giant tournament in Chicago that they do at McCormick Place. If you've ever been to McCormick Place, then you know it's beyond massive. At one time I believe it was the biggest convention space in North America back in the day. And back when Chicago was run like a first-class city and not a total clown show, it used to play host to countless conventions and trade shows. But thanks to unions and crime driving convention business out of Chicago, now it's highlights are the Auto-Show (which honestly fell off hard compared to what it used to be), and teenage girls volleyball tournaments. 

Anyway again, I have been to their tournaments the last two years to support. His daughters are basically little sisters to me. I've known them since they were born and it's wild how fast time has flown by and how old they are now. Plus the other girls' dads are fucking hilarious and I've gotten to become friends with some of them. Plus, I played volleyball in highschool, still love to play it at North Ave Beach in the summer, and it's an awesome sport. So I enjoy watching it and understand it. 

The scale of the event is seriously impressive. 

There's gotta be 300 courts set up, all with referees, all with cameras set up so that family who didn't make the trip can stream it live on an app, all with games going off back to back all day long. There is no stoppages. It's insane. And it all flows super smoothly. 

The level of talent is really impressive too. 

These girls are like 12 or 13 years old and can dig set and jump serve like the best of 'em. 

That said, the last two years going to these things, I can count on 1 hand easily how many parents I've seen that have even come close to embarrassing themselves or their kids by getting unruly, rude, or causing a scene over their kids playing a game. 

The only thing I could say that could even come close to embarassing behavior is what takes place at the McCormick Hyatt hotel bar that connects the convention center to the massive hotel directly next to it where everybody stays. 

When I tell you that these parents can drink, buddy, these parents can drink. 

Picture Mardi Gras, meets corporate business trip happy hour, meets parents weekend at college. You would think it was an open-bar and that they were giving away free drinks. The bar is 3-4 deep, all the way around, from 10am until 10pm every day of the tournament. 

I've never seen anything like it. 

I always chat up the bartenders when I'm there because they are loving life, happy as can be making bank on tips and being that slammed around the clock- and because they have the funniest stories. 

Around 5 or 6 o'clock they start playing older 90s and 2000s hip hop and r&b and then the real party begins. 

If you've never seen a pair of mothers of 3 pop-lock-and-drop-it to "Low" by Flo-Rida, you're really missing out. 

I say all that because from all accounts, it looks like a genuinely fun time that these parents look forward to each year (I hope it's not like this every week, city to city, like a traveling tour of drunk parents ripping it up at hotel bars nationwide). The kids all go off and hang out after their games and do whatever in their hotel rooms or at the pool, and the parents get hammered and let loose. 

Seems like a win-win.)

I say all that because anytime I see parents gone wild, like we did in that video at the top of the blog, my brain can't register it. 

I can't imagine anything happening in a kid's game, that would cause me to humiliate and disgrace my son or daughter, and myself, like that. I will never understand getting worked up at sporting events with grown men playing, nevermind children. This kind of shit makes zero sense on any level. 

Maybe if another kid did something dirty to my kid, or a parent yelled out something ignorant, rude, or hurtful, but I don't know, again, I don't have kids so maybe it's different when you do? 

But this was a cheerleading competition we're talking about. Not exactly pee-wee hockey. 

How do you get that worked up?

Maybe it's the crazy high cost of your kids playing in these leagues, and stress of having to travel all over hell and creation every weekend, when you'd rather just be relaxing at home that has everybody on edge? Or maybe it's just the booze? Or is it just that a generation of parents have never lived more vicariously through their kids and everyone thinks and expects their kid to be Lebron James? 

It's all baffling. 

And really sad. 

We've got to start making examples of shitty parents like this, holding them accountable, and enforcing higher standards.

You think these little girls and all their brothers and sisters who got dragged to this competition this weekend won't be traumatized by this? 

p.s. - would love to hear more stories from the travel league parents about stuff they've seen on the road at these tournaments. The stuff I've heard from my partner Bobby's friends, and the bartenders alone would make for an amazing blog series. Might have to start one. Drop in the comments below or send over to dante@barstoolsports.com