USA Cheer, the national governing body for all forms of cheerleading, recently kicked off the inaugural STUNT season with the first collegiate STUNT tournament on Saturday, January 29, on the campus of the University of Louisville.
As a new competition sport that was announced this past September, STUNT has been designed with a goal to be considered for NCAA Emerging Sport status, and tailored to follow Title IX’s requirements for intercollegiate sport.
The teams participating at the Cardinal Arena were the University of Louisville, West Virginia University, and Morehead State University.
The University of Louisville came in first place, followed by Morehead State University in second and West Virginia University in third.
“This competition was a huge success for USA Cheer and STUNT, the competitive morale and immense team spirit at the event was evidence that STUNT is becoming increasingly more popular and important in communities across the country,” said USA Cheer Executive Director, Bill Seely.
This was the first of a series of tournaments that will comprise the 2011 collegiate STUNT season. The next event will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday, February 11 at the Raleigh Convention Center. There will also be a STUNT tournament at Cheersport in Atlanta, Georgia on February 18, followed by two more STUNT tournaments on February 19 in the Georgia World Congress Center. The entire season will last from January-April and include more than ten tournaments, held in different locations around the country. Over 20 college and university teams are competing in STUNT in its first season!
A new competitive team sport that has derived from traditional cheerleading, STUNT removes the crowd-leading and focuses on the technical and athletic components of cheer, which include the partner stunts, pyramids, basket tosses, jumps and tumbling skills.
During the first tournament, University of Louisville outscored its opponents in each of the four quarters of the competition. These quarters include Partner Stunts, Group Jumps/ Tumbling, Pyramids/ Basket Tosses, and Team Performance. Morehead State University came in second place in all four quarters as well. Each university’s STUNT team wore uniforms designed by Varsity Spirit Fashions with their school colors and mascots in mind. Each player was identified by a number on the front and back of her jersey.
Within each quarter, teams perform skill sequences of varying levels of difficulty, technical execution and synchronization. The fourth quarter is the “Team Performance” which allows teams to incorporate their entire team’s arsenal into a 2 minute and 30 second routine. Two or four teams compete at time in head-to-head competition.
“We are very pleased with our results at the first STUNT competition on campus,” said Todd Sharp, spirit coordinator of the University of Louisville. “Our strong win shows that we have a team of very dedicated athletes that take their passion for competition to the next level.”
This inaugural season is part of another step to the larger goal that USA Cheer has in mind, to begin the process of qualifying for NCAA emerging sport status this summer. One of the criteria to qualify as an emerging sport requires there must be 20 or more varsity teams and/or club teams that currently exist on college campuses in that sport. The increasing number of participants in these STUNT competitions will ensure that USA Cheer will have sufficient participation to meet these criteria.
There are several additional schools considering the addition of STUNT to their sports rosters in the next few months. STUNT provides new opportunities for the more than 1,000,000 traditional and All- Star Cheerleaders of high school age in the United States that are looking to utilize their talents and skills at the college level in a varsity sport format.
Cheerleaders, coaches, and parents can visit www.usacheer.net to learn more about STUNT, the USA Cheer Safety Council and its safety initiatives as well as to take the “I Cheer Safe” pledge.
About USA Cheer
The USA Federation for Sport Cheering is a not-for profit organization and is the national governing body for all disciplines of cheerleading. USA Cheer exists to serve the entire cheer community, including club cheering (All Star), traditional school-based cheer programs and the new sport of “STUNT.” USA Cheer has three primary objectives: help grow and develop interest and participation in cheer throughout the United States; promote safety and safety education for cheer in the United States; and represent the United States of America in international cheer competitions.
