A new sport for girls called “stunt” is taking Raleigh area schools by storm.
The new sport is the result of a federal discrimination complaint that forced North Carolina’s largest school system to expand opportunities for female athletes.
Millbrook High school stunt coach Allison Mousel, “Stunt is a new sport,” said Millbrook High stunt coach Allison Mousel. “It’s been in colleges for a few years now and we are trying to bring it down to the high school level. It’s made from cheerleading. It basically combines all the technical aspects of cheerleading in a head-to-head game format.”
Stunt is a combination of cheer and gymnastics. Competitions are divided into four parts: partner stunts, pyramids and tosses, group jumps and tumbling and team performance.
“It’s sort of like a sport off of cheer. There’s four quarters, they include tumbling, stunting, partner stunts, pyramids and baskets,” said Millbrook freshman Ryen Boleware.
In November 2010, the National Women’s Law Center filed a complaint against Wake County Public Schools and 11 other school systems, accusing them of violating Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs.
The center said the gap between girls in school versus girls playing sports is too large and that limits their potential.
Wake Schools reached a settlement in 2012 by agreeing to add athletic opportunities at high schools for female students.
“One of the reasons that we’re bringing it to the high school level is to give girls more scholarship opportunities in college. So eventually the hope is that it will become big enough to where colleges will start offering scholarships for girls. It is a Title IX sport. It’s considered a full-fledged sport for female athletes,” Mousel said.
In North Carolina, stunt is only being offered at in Wake schools, but coaches are hoping to see it grow.
“Our hope is that next year there will be more teams participating in Wake County and more teams participating in the state. So right now Wake County is the only county that’s participating. And we want to grow it so that it can be a true state championship. And eventually we’d be able to play schools from other states as well,” said Mousel.
The Millbrook Wildcats are one of four schools now preparing to compete in the first county championships – and the athletes couldn’t be more proud.
“When we cheer for other sports it’s like we’re cheering for them but this a sport that’s for us, so it’s really cool,” said Chania Witherspoon, a Millbrook junior.
While competitive cheerleading does not meet the requirements of Tile IX, Stunt does.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association currently hosts championships in 11 sports for boys and only 10 for girls.
But if stunt raises enough interest, it could become sport number 11 for girls.
The athletes are hoping for that, too, and even considering the possibility of continuing stunt in college.
“UNC has a stunt team and that’s my college,” said Savannah Stovall, a Millbrook freshman. “I really, really want to go to and when I found out they have a stunt team I got really excited because I really enjoy this.”