What is STUNT?

Have you ever wondered if cheerleading was a sport? There’s no need to wonder any more. USA Cheer came up STUNT, which is a growing competitive team sport that not only has cheerleading elements but it also includes the game aspect that other sports have. STUNT is a new opportunity for female athletes to use their cheerleading backgrounds in a High School and College level sport format. In STUNT there is no crowd leading element like there is in Game Day Cheerleading. However, partner stunts, jumps, tumbling, pyramids, and basket tosses are still included. STUNTs objectives and guiding purposes are to, “create new opportunities for female athletes at the collegiate and high school level, to preserve traditional cheerleading as a vital and important part of a school's spirit program, satisfy all requirements for Title IX and qualify for sport status at the College and High School level” (http://usacheer.net/stunt).

Like many other sports, STUNT has Officials, a coin toss that starts the game, timeouts, player introductions, a break at half time and much more. In STUNT, the format is set up like a football game. There are 2 halves and 4 quarters. There are specific skill sections for each quarter.

Quarter 1: Partner Stunts

Quarter 2: Pyramids and Tosses

Quarter 3: Group Jumps and Tumbling

Quarter 4: Team Performance

The routines and skills used in each of these quarters ispredetermined by the USA Cheer STUNT Competition Committee. The routines are then published for all STUNT competitors to learn and memorize before participating in a STUNT tournament. There are levels of skills for each of these predetermined routines in every quarter. They start from beginning skills to elite skills (Levels 1-4/5).

In the first three quarters the teams will compete “Head to Head”. This means that they compete at the same time performing the same routines on opposite sides of the floor. Officials will award a point to the team that executes the skills and the predetermined routine the best. If there is a tie the Officials will split the point and award it to both teams. During the fourth quarter each team will take turns performing their Team Routine. This routine combines skills from the first three quarters. They will have the entire floor to do so.

During the tournament the coaches have game plans and strategize to give their team an opportunity to have the best chance at winning. “Teams will have possession of the Level Call. Imagine a team has possession in the 1st Quarter; the coach wants to call a Skill Level that he or she believes they can execute better than the other team. If they excel in partner stunts, the coach may call Skill Level 5 (the most difficult level) but if partner stunt is their weaker category, the coach may call Skill Level 2 and try to earn points by tying” (http://varsity.com/event/1411/stunt.aspx).

There is a scoreboard where the points are shown for each team throughout the entire tournament. The team with the most points accumulated throughout the 4 quarters, wins!

With the unique format and the cheerleading aspect, this sport will continue to grow year after year! 

The authors：

 Rebecca Virgadamo has been on UCA Staff for 9 years. She has taught cheerleading camps all over the country as well as internationally. She has performed with UCA  in Las Vegas and New York City. She also cheered at Sacramento State for 4 years and was captain for one year. Rebecca is very happy to be in China to share her cheerleading knowledge with the kids in China!