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Tyler Abrams:
In 2011, STUNT teams started forming at universities around the country. ASU students formed their own club team in 2018. This past August, the sport was officially recognized as an emerging sport by the NCAA. Since the sport’s inception, it’s been changing the game for female athletes with cheerleading backgrounds.
I’m Tyler Abrams, and this is State Press Play.
This week, we’re featuring original reporting from the State Press podcast desk. My co-host Gabriella Fernbaugh went to an ASU STUNT Devils practice to learn more about the expansion of this sport.
Gabriella Fernbaugh:
On a recent Tuesday evening in the Sun Devil Fitness Complex, ASU STUNT Devils are attempting their most complicated pyramid structure. The team hasn't been able to hit it all practice. Finally, the team succeeds. The pyramid they’ve been working on is three athletes tall. The tricky part is tossing one athlete into the air to land on the knee of another athlete who is standing on her teammate's shoulders.
STUNT is a sport that incorporates aspects of cheerleading but removes the crowd-leading elements. It is a four-quarter game of head-to-head cheerleading. Coach Kayla Ewing says the STUNT judging is more objective than all-star cheerleading judging. To clarify, all-star cheerleaders wear sparkly uniforms and stage makeup and compete a two-minute and thirty second routine with stunting, tumbling and dancing.
Kayla Ewing:
STUNT is a more athletic version of cheerleading. It's cheer without the rah rah is what I like to tell new athletes who are just getting into the sport.
Gabriella Fernbaugh:
Prior to the beginning of the competition season, every team receives the same stunt, jumping and tumbling sequences, along with one routine that combines all of these skills. The sequences are created by USA Cheer and broken down based on difficulty.
Kayla Ewing:
We received 24 routines at the beginning of the season, eight partner stunts, eight pyramids and tosses and eight jumps in tumbling routines, and everybody that is in your level. So for us, it's college has the same routines. They get them at the same time. And we learn all of those routines to play at a game.
Gabriella Fernbaugh:
Before the game the teams will flip a coin for starting possession. Whoever is in possession decides the difficulty of the quarter in play. The game is broken into four quarters; Partner stunts, Pyramid and tosses, Jumps and tumbling, and finally, the Team Routine. After every play the judges grant a point to the team with the best execution score.
Kayla Ewing:
The judging is done where they determine based on technique based on accuracy based on how well the routine was performed, not what routine was performed, how well each skill was performed. And they award points based on that, so you can get up to 24 points in a game.
Gabriella Fernbaugh:
When competing, the athletes wear numbered jerseys, similar to a basketball team. This allows the athletes to have their own stats, which creates the individuality within the sport. Statistics for the athletes gives them the opportunity to push boundaries for themselves.
Kayla Ewing:
Unlike all star cheer you your team either hit their routine or they didn't. You touched in your tumbling pass or you didn't you know it's it's very you hit zero or you didn't and that's the two parts of all star cheer in STUNT. It's every routine. You're fighting for that that point. And based on that, based on the number of routines you were in that got a point based on the number of times we won. Based on all of that you get a stat.
Gabriella Fernbaugh:
Many girls who cheered throughout high school, either in all-star or sideline cheer, find themselves lost when wanting to cheer in college. Natalie Osborn, a year four base on ASU STUNT Devils, says there isn’t a lot of space on college cheer teams for women who aren’t flyers – the athletes who are being thrown into the air.
Natalie Osborn:
I never thought I was able to cheer in college because I'm not a flyer. So I was like, it's always coed teams. It's boys and girls and flyers are always girls. And then it was my senior year we were at a competition for high school. And I also looked at the STUNT table. It was really cool because I was like, Oh, I can go to college and still do cheer because I can still base a stunt. …I kind of just decided to try out for the team I haven't left and its been really fun.
Gabriella Fernbaugh:
Many of the athletes I spoke with talked about how impactful this sport has been on their lives. They say that STUNT creates unforgettable experiences.
Natalie Obsorn:
I would say most memorable moment we were doing a last pyramid at like are last tournament and one of the other bases like that I was really close with it was her senior year so like we went to go set for the routine and we just started crying because it was like the sweetest moment so I think it's just like getting to know all these girls just been really cool and feeling very strong, confident while doing it. It's really awesome.
Gabriella Fernbaugh:
STUNT creates a more traditional athletic competition in the world of cheerleading. It breaks down the basics of execution and allows girls who have cheerleading experience to still use their skills throughout college. This sport is awakening a new perspective of cheerleading. Coach Ewing says she wishes STUNT was around when she was in college.
Kayla Ewing:
I am a hyper-athletic and competitive individual. And so I think STUNT would have been my calling as well. And I just think that I'm I'm grateful that the sport exists now. And it gives opportunities for women in college to continue being athletes and that wasn't the case for a very long time.
Gabriella Fernbaugh:
There are 40 universities that sponsor a varsity STUNT team. The NCAA has approved division one and division two competitions for STUNT. Until it receives Division Three recognition for smaller schools, it cannot have a national competition. Until there is a national championship, STUNT will still be considered an “emerging sport” by the NCAA.
Kayla Ewing:
And so I think the goal my hope is in the next five years we will be what is a we will reach championship status, which means we will be eligible for the NCAA to make us a sport… And when that happens, I don't know I'm probably going to lose my mind.
Gabriella Fernbaugh:
In the next five years we might begin to see higher recognition for this growing sport. STUNT creates opportunities, connections and a great environment for female athletes to continue to grow. If you want to know more about ASU STUNT Devils, you can follow the team on Instagram @ASU_STUNTdevils.
READ MORE: This story was reported on by Gabriella Fernbaugh of the State Press Podcast desk and is the only form of the story.
Tyler Abrams:
That’s all for this week’s State Press Play. I’m Tyler Abrams. You can follow State Press on X and Instagram @statepress. The story on today’s episode was reported and mixed by Gabriella Fernbaugh. It was edited by Amber Victoria Singer, Alexis Heichman and Reece Andrews. Our original music is by Jake LeRoux and Ellie Willard. See you next week, devils.
