The stunt team is officially back and secured a victory in their first ever appearance in competition on Thursday, March 14, 2024. The Lady Bengals came out on top with a 11-
5 win against the Garner Trojans.
According to team captain Sam Lane, the stunt team was just getting started as an extracurricular activity before the pandemic. That team never got to compete. This year, the team has reformed and is stronger than ever.
“For us to have our first win at our first competition ever, that’s making school history,” said Lane. “Some teams don’t win their first year at all, so it’s a big deal to win our very first one. It’s a strong starting point.”
The freshmen cheerleaders at FVHS this year wanted a stunt team, so they recruited the Fuquay-Varina Middle School cheerleading coach, Taylor Sauls, to be their stunt team coach. The upperclassmen thought this was an amazing opportunity to work on and refine their ski
lls during cheer’s off-season.
In their win versus Garner, the team excelled at jumps and tumbling.
“We’ve had other coaches tell us that jumps and tumbling are our strengths,” said Lane.
According to Lane, stunt is different than regular cheer because of the spotlight on hitting their counts. Even the smallest bobble on a skill can spell disaster for a team in a competition.
“Everything has to be clean or you’re going to lose,” s
aid Lane.
According to USA Cheer, “Stunt, one of the fastest growing female sports in the country, removes the crowd-leading element and focuses on the technical and athletic components of cheer.”
Teams perform side-by-side on the mat in four periods, each with a different skill including partner stunts, pyramids & tosses, jumps & tumbling, and team routine. At the beginning of each competition, a coin is flipped and the winning team decides what routine to compete. After that, the teams alternate picking the next event.
“You need to have the willingness to go to practice and put in work and effort into the sport. Sometimes you can easily get frustrated, so you need to have the ability to calm yourself down and work through whatever skill you need to get,” said sophomore Maddie Hunt.
The team struggled in their first scrimmage against Cary High School and Green Level High School. Despite a comeback and 6 point lead, the team
would go on to lose this matchup.
Hunt said, “It was hard for our team to learn these stunt routines because we only have 11 girls on the team. Compared to our competition, this is a small number.”
But in their first official competition, this weakness became a strength.
Lane said that they went into the competition with “high hopes but low expectations,” considering they are the smallest team in the conference.
“Having a smaller number of girls on the team helped us on Thursday because we learned to push through and count on each other to do their part and not get tired easily,” said Hunt.
You can see our Lady Bengals in action again on Wednesday, April 3, at Millbrook High School versus the Wake Forest Cougars.
