Tag Archives: Bill Boggs

USA Cheer: First Stunt Exhibition Held at Methodist University

Administrators and Coaches from 16 Universities represented at first STUNT event.

STUNT to apply for Emerging Sport Status in June 2011.

Memphis, Tenn. (December) – The first official exhibition of the newly developed sport, STUNT, took place at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Sunday December 13. Participating in the exhibition game were the cheer team from Methodist University and the club cheer team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Representatives were on hand from 16 of the 23 universities that have agreed to participate in STUNT in the spring of 2011 to introduce and demonstrate the new competition format. They were also in attendance for the training session on Saturday, which reviewed the guidelines of the game format, performance requirements and judging.

After the exhibition, everyone involved left with a better understanding of the competition format and the areas that need to be fine-tuned,” says Bill Boggs, Director of STUNT. “Overall, it was an extremely successful training exercise from all perspectives, from coach to participant to operational.”

“It was a milestone moment to host the first STUNT exhibition,” said Melissa Hay, coach of the Methodist University team. “Methodist is excited to be a part of this landmark in cheer history. STUNT offers teams the chance to compete at a high level using their skills and strategy in a new, exciting way.”

Bob McEvoy, Athletic Director for Methodist, agreed. “Female athletes will have another platform in which to showcase the amazing athleticism that they have developed from traditional cheerleading. Whenever more options are available to all student athletes, the university benefits by having a more engaged student body.”

Boggs also noted that one of the benefits of STUNT is that a broad spectrum of teams can be competitive, regardless of school size. “We had a Division III team competing against a Division I team, and it was a fair game that allowed coaches to employ strategy every step of the way.”

For more information on STUNT, visit http://usacheer.net.

About USA Cheer

The USA Federation for Sport Cheering is a not-for profit organization and is the national governing body for all disciplines of cheerleading. USA Cheer exists to serve the entire cheer community, including club cheering (All Star), traditional school based cheer programs and the new sport of “STUNT.” USA Cheer has three primary objectives: help grow and develop interest and participation in Cheer throughout the United States; promote safety and safety education for cheer in the United States; and represent the United States of America in international cheer competitions.

Description of STUNT

Each STUNT game will comprise four quarters in the following categories: Partner Stunts, Jumps and Group Tumbling, Tosses and Pyramids, and Team Routine. Within each quarter, teams will perform skill sequences of varying levels of difficulty, technical execution and synchronization. Anyone who follows sports will be able to follow Stunt. Teams compete simultaneously, and the head-to-head format simplifies the scoring process, allowing fans to track the results of the competition as each round is completed. Because of the new format, teams will have records and national rankings, which will determine their post season play, much like other sports. In addition, post season play can be tracked by the fans, much like “March Madness.” For more information on STUNT, visit http://usacheer.net.

About NCAA Emerging Sport Status

NCAA Emerging Sport Status is a sport recognized by the NCAA that is intended to provide additional athletics opportunities to female student-athletes. To qualify, a sport must, among other things, involve physical exertion with the purpose of competition within a collegiate structure, have standardized rules with a scoring system ratified by a governing body and have regularly scheduled competitions.

About Title IX

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions where the federal government provides financial assistance.

First Stunt Exhibition Held at Methodist University

Understanding Varsity

Since the day the Associated Press reported Jeff Webb said Cheerleading is not a sport, I’ve had quite a few conversations and email exchanges with Varsity employees concerning the Quinnipiac University trial and the future of cheerleading. In many cases I’m not stating exactly who said what, but here is a summary of what I was told by my friends at Varsity. As used below, Traditional Cheerleading refers to sideline cheerleading teams, whether or not they compete. Competition Only Cheerleading refers to teams that were established for the sake of competition, including All*Star teams and competition only collegiate teams such as Maryland and Fairmont State.

Quinnipiac University Trial

Varsity is interested in promoting and protecting all forms of cheerleading in the long term, which sometimes means doing something that is misunderstood in the short term in order to do what is best long term. Varsity’s interest in supporting all forms of cheerleading is evident from their involvement in the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators (AACCA), the United State and International All Star Federation (USASF/IASF), USA Cheer, and the International Cheer Union (ICU). From a personal and personnel point of view, Varsity was founded and is run by cheerleaders that have a love of cheerleading and want to see it continue to grow and evolve. The Quinnipiac case is a landmark case concerning the future of cheerleading, so Varsity felt involvement was necessary. More specifically, Jeff Webb got involved with this case, as an expert witness for the Volleyball team in order to protect Traditional Cheerleading. This sounds counter-intuitive, but as explained to me, if Cheerleading as a whole, including Traditional teams, Traditional teams that compete, and Competition Only teams, is considered a sport the focus of the Traditional teams will shift from school leadership and community involvement to competition. And whether we agree with the stance or not, Varsity, especially UCA, has always said Traditional Cheerleading is all about school leadership and community involvement with competition being a bonus. Varsity wanted to help reinforce the focus of Traditional Cheerleading teams and avoid anything that will take Traditional teams away from school leadership and community involvement.

In addition, sports at the High School and Collegiate level have rules that could change what teams can do in terms of fundraising and limit the amount of time teams can participate in the sport. Varsity does not want these potential restrictions to have the consequence of limiting sideline cheerleading responsibilities in favor of competition or preparing for competition. On the opposite end, a concern was mentioned that if Cheerleading becomes a sport, without separating Traditional from Competition Only, it could lead to some Traditional cheerleaders not having an opportunity to compete. These concerns conflict with each other, but that is due to not knowing how each governing body, meaning the NCAA and state high school athletic associations, will respond to cheerleading as a whole being considered a sport.

Financial Implications

Profit is an easy thing for people to focus on when criticizing Varsity because of Varsity’s leadership position in the industry. The reality is profit is necessary to remain in business, promote cheerleading, and fund ideas, but it is not the first thought. I questioned this, pointing out Varsity’s relationship with Leonard Green, a private equity firm that appears to have a heavy focus on profits. I was told by someone that has never been in a meeting with the partners of Leonard Green, but has been with NCA since before it was part of Varsity and been in most or all of the high level meeting since the combination, that Jeff has never talked profits first. The same person pointed out the things Jeff has said and done have erased the perception many long time NCA’ers had prior to the combination that UCA/Varsity was too financially focused.

It was also pointed out that the growth and evolution of cheerleading is financially good for all aspects of the industry. Gyms will have more people to train, event producers will have more people and teams at competitions, and parents and athletes will have more options to ensure they are getting what they need. There was no hiding that Varsity is going to profit from what they are doing, but they pointed out that many others, including Varsity’s competitors, will also profit from what Varsity is doing.

Competition Only Cheerleading

Varsity is working with USA Cheer on a competition format they believe will help Competition Only Cheerleading gain recognition as a sport under Title IX and by sports governing bodies, such as the NCAA. USA Cheer did not offer many details about the format or who they were working with, but Bill Seely, the Executive Director of USA Cheer, told me they are talking to the National Competitive Stunt and Tumble Association (NCSTA) in hopes of finding a format that will meet all the criteria USA Cheer has been told is necessary to get recognition as a sport from the appropriate organizations and more details will be publicized soon. I was told a large part of the concern is whether or not the competitive formats implemented or proposed to date go far enough to differentiate Traditional Cheerleading from Competition Only Cheerleading and a secondary concern is whether or not the proposed formats separate Competition Only Cheerleading far enough away from other sports, specifically gymnastics. If they haven’t done enough to separate themselves, USA Cheer’s understanding is Cheerleading will not be recognized as desired. When asked if USA Cheer would be willing to work closer with NCSTA, I was told yes. I was also told that NCA Vice President Bill Boggs offered to create an NCSTA division at NCA 2010 College Nationals, but the offer was declined, but NCA is still open to working with the NCSTA and having an NCSTA division at NCA College Nationals.

Non-Conclusion

I’m not going to draw a conclusion yet. I’d like to hear what others have to say in addition to and in response to what is stated here. I’d also like to find out more about the competition only format being developed before coming to a conclusion. Please let us know your thoughts and what needs to be explained in more detail.