Staff Writer
Stunt is a new and growing sport that is very similar to cheerleading. Both cheerleading and stunt have the same athletic skills. Its competition format and scoring systems are what makes stunt different from cheerleading. Although cheerleading is both a male and female sport, stunt only allows females to participate. Every year the USA Cheer Stunt Competition Committee develops routines and publishes them. Teams compete side by side and participants are awarded points by a panel of judges. The teams are judged on mastery of a set routine, not creativity. Stunt is being considered for NCAA Emerging Sport status and has been designed to meet Title IX's requirements for intercollegiate sports.
Stunt consists of four quarters. First quarter is partner stunts, second quarter is pyramids and tosses, third quarter is jumps and tumbling, and fourth quarter is team performance. The two teams will play on opposite sides of the floor and perform routines against each other in the first three quarters. In the fourth quarter each team will have the entire floor to perform on.
The competition format has two major categories:
1. Head to Head: Includes two teams
competing against one another. Each game lasts about 40 minutes.
2. Stunt tournaments: This is when
multiple teams compete head to head. A regular three-team tournament game
finishes in one hour, and a four-team tournament game takes approximately one
hour and 30 minutes.
The introduction of stunt into the
Wake County School System will make it the first county in the state to offer
stunt as a competitive sport.
