Stunt has come to Hickman, added alongside boys volleyball, as the newest MSHSAA sport offered this year. Stunt is a cheerleading-based sport that focuses on the technical rather than the crowd-based aspects of the activity.
“It’s a pretty new sport [at the] high school level,” backspot Kylie Gilliland (10) said. “We’re making history. That’s our kind of our slogan for this year.”
Stunt is one of the fastest-growing female sports in the nation, helping schools comply with Title IX regulations while giving women more opportunities to participate in sports at all levels.
Stunt uses cheerleading skills but applies them in a head-to-head game between two teams. There are four quarters, each with a specific cheer element highlighted. The first quarter is partner stunts, the second is pyramids and tosses, the third is jumps and tumbling and the last quarter combines the previous three for a short routine.
During each quarter, both competing teams perform at the same time and are ranked based on the skills they demonstrate. Whichever team performs better during that quarter is awarded a point, and whichever team earns the most points wins the game.
This game-style format has allowed the stunt team to focus on their own performance instead of cheering for another team.
“Cheer is definitely more of the yelling and the dancing while also stunting and tumbling, which is, you know, fun in itself, but you’re cheering for others. And so stunt is its own thing,” Hickman cheer and stunt coach Molly Lyman said. “It’s their own games. They don’t cheer for somebody else. There is no cheering in it. There is no dancing. It is purely the acrobatic side of cheer and making everything precise and exact.”
Flyer Audra Crousore (11) saw some additional benefits to stunt being considered a sport while cheer is traditionally considered an activity.
“My favorite thing about stunt is that we’re kind of officially treated like a sport. Now, cheer isn’t really considered a sport, so a lot of times, we don’t get buses, we don’t get snacks…there’s just something different about [stunt],” Audra said.
Base Lane’ya Sager (11) noted the difference in competition scoring. In cheer, the team’s score is not released until after the routine is over, while in stunt, the points are given between each quarter.
“You can’t let…things affect you, because it will affect the next thing,” Lane’ya said.
Despite being a new team, Hickman stunt has worked hard to build a community.
“We have a lot of new people that have never done cheer before, and it’s just positive [and] uplifting,” Lane’ya said. “We’re always there for each other, even if something goes wrong, we’re still there for each other, and we help bring energy back up.”
Kylie explained the activities the team did to create this community
“We each went around the circle and said what we’re proud of each other for,” Kylie said. “It was just a really cool bonding experience to just show appreciation for each other.”
The coaches have noticed this bonding and are excited about how it pushes the team to improve.
“What we’ve seen come about the most and has made us really excited is the camaraderie,” Lyman said. “To see them all encourage each other, just like any other team would, and…push each other to be better and have that drive and watch them improve has just been incredible.”
The team is emphasizing that students do not have to have experience to try out.
“You don’t have to be a cheerleader, you don’t even have to be a gymnast, we had people that were volleyball players that came on the team, and they’re in every other stunt,” Kylie said.
Hickman’s up-and-coming stunt team has a record of 5-7 so far. The team’s next home game is tomorrow against cross-town rivals Rock Bridge.
“Come to the games. They’re really, really fun and super different than any other sport, honestly. So…come support your team. We need it. We love it, and I think it’ll be…really fun to watch,” Audra said.
