By Alex Edel
At the end of the cheerleading season last year the squad and coach Kelly Vernon decided that they needed a boost. They needed to add stunting and tumbling.
During games the team will now be throwing girls into the air and doing back handsprings along with the dances from last year.
The squad started practicing their new tricks in late June and continued practice all through August. With the help of two new coaches, Jessica Miller, who specializes in stunting, and Gianna Dahlia, who was a world-class gymnast, the team has been able to incorporate these new tricks into their routines. Three girls will be flying for stunts this year: Angela Navarro â09, Emma Sczudlo â11 and Christina Yang â12. Sczuldo, having been on a prior competitive cheerleading squad, is the only girl on the squad with previous stunting experience.
Vernon said that they did not need to buy extra safety equipment, because the stunts that they will be doing will be more basic. When they first started to work on stunts they did drills to help them prepare for the actual stunts. At first the team had only one group doing stunts at a time while the rest of the team spotted from below.
“The cheerleaders have been diligent about getting stronger,” Vernon said.
For example, the entire team has been doing pushups regularly.
“We are really excited to show off our completely revamped squad,” cheerleading team member Adedoyin Oyekan â10 said. “We have worked really hard to perfect the stunts and routines and we are going to be much better than last year.”
