Varsity girls stunt cheer has been added to Roseville High School’s list of spring sports and is set to make its debut this upcoming season. The team was finalized after its one-day tryout last Wednesday and its members will begin practicing this week for their first match in late February.

Coach Bri Eigenman, who is also the coach of RHS’ unity and competition cheerleading teams, said assistant principal Jason Wilson and athletic director Emily Dodds presented her with the opportunity to bring stunt cheer to RHS and that she is excited to take it on.

According to Eigenman, both were helpful and supportive in bringing the new sport to the school and were eager to to see the process through.

Alongside RHS, Oakmont High School also added stunt cheer to its athletic offerings this year, making the Roseville Joint Union High School District the only high school district in California that offers stunt cheer at all of its schools.

This makes RHS one of the last two schools in the district to begin offering the sport. Even so, Eigenman is confident in her athletes’ abilities to learn the new sport quickly.

“We are a little bit behind,” Eigenman said. “But based off of the skill level that we have as a program, I’m confident that we will be able to catch right up and blend in nicely.”

The fact that the RJUHSD is the only district in the state with all of its schools offering the sport does not necessarily mean that the sport is unpopular; according to RHS cheer consultant Brisha Romero, stunt is growing rapidly in California and has recently gained popularity in the state, and she feels that it will provide opportunities for athletes to try something new.

“The state of California is huge right now for stunt,” Romero said. “I think it’s great. I think the girls are looking forward to it. I think they’ve been waiting for this, it’s a new challenge.”

Because most of the schools in the Capital Valley Conference do not have stunt teams, RHS must instead compete outside of CVC competition with other Sac-Joaquin Section schools such as Oak Ridge, Granite Bay, Rocklin, Lincoln and Liberty.

Matches will be held, on average, twice each week and will usually consist of two teams going head-to-head.

A typical match between two schools will last four quarters, each with it’s own focuses. Quarter one will focus on partner stunts, quarter two on pyramids and tosses, quarter three on group jumps and tumbling and quarter four on team performance. It is possible to continue into overtime if necessary.

Prior to each season, USA Cheer decides on the 18 annual routines for high school stunt cheer, picking six different routines for each of the first three quarters that occur in every match. These six routines increase in difficulty on a scale from one to six (six being the most difficult).

There are four rounds in each of the first three quarters during which the team controlling the possession can pick which routine they want to perform that round. Both teams perform the selected routine simultaneously on opposite sides of the floor and are scored based on how many mistakes are made. In the fourth quarter, each team performs its own made-up routine, one at a time.

Fourth-year RHS unity and competition cheerleader Hayley Littlejohn looks forward to the new things stunt cheer will provide her with this season, as she is one of the team’s members.

“I’m really excited because it’s different,” Littlejohn said. “The last four years it’s been pretty routine with cheer. You go to basketball, football, competitions; it’s always set. But when it comes to stunt you don’t know what you’re getting into. I think it’s really awesome, just being a first-year sport it’s exciting to see where it’s going to go and what will happen.”