Jan. 28, 2010

Eight universities from across the United States have come together to form the National Competitive Stunts and Tumbling Association, which will act as the governing body and coaches association for competitive cheer's evolution into an NCAA sport. The current members include the head coaches and administrators from Oregon, Maryland, Baylor, Quinnipiac, Fairmont State, Azusa Pacific and Fort Valley State, in addition to the club team head coach at Ohio State.

The goal of the NCSTA is to usher competitive cheer into NCAA emerging sports status and eventually, a fully sanctioned varsity sport with an NCAA sponsored national championship.

NCSTA's first step towards achieving their goal was revolutionizing the standard meet format. Felecia Mulkey, Head Stunts and Gymnastic Coach at the University of Oregon, is responsible for the new meet concept, and worked with Oregon's Sports Information staff to develop statistics for the emerging sport.

"Creating this sport at the varsity collegiate level has always been about meeting the interests and abilities of hundreds of thousands of young women that participate in the sport nationally at the high school and club levels," said Mike Bellotti, University of Oregon Athletics Director. "Giving those women an opportunity to compete and perform at the collegiate level is not only exciting and rewarding, but consistent with our goal of providing more opportunities for female student-athletes by starting a sport that has the potential for tremendous growth."

Four years prior to Mulkey's commitment to creating a meet structure that separated Competitive Cheer from traditional cheerleading, the University of Maryland was responsible for the first instance of Competitive Cheer as a NCAA varsity sport.

"Competitive Cheer is a passion for young women across our nation," University of Maryland Athletics Director Deborah Yow said. "Their sport is exploding because of the interest and Maryland is proud to have been the first University to designate it as a varsity sport."

An NCSTA meet will have five events, four focusing on individual skills before the traditional team routine in the fifth event. Compulsory and coach selected heats will be included in the stunt event, pyramid event, basket event and tumbling event. The revised meet format will provide for a more well-rounded display of skill and athletic ability, in addition to being very fan friendly.

The new meet format and scoring system the NCSTA has developed will ensure consistency in NCSTA meets throughout the nation, regardless of host school. This scoring system will allow the NCSTA to award postseason honors, such as an All-America team, to competitive cheer student-athletes.

The NCSTA has also furthered their commitment to developing Competitive Cheer by forming a "partnership in safety" with the National Council for Spirit Safety and Education (NCSSE).

On February 5, 2010, seven universities will meet at Kennesaw State to test-run the competition format. Maryland, Quinnipiac, Oregon, Fort Valley State, University of Georgia, Fairmont State will all compete in the first-ever NCSTA-style competitive cheer meet.

"Quinnipiac is very proud to be part of such a prestigious group of universities that have the vision and enthusiasm for competitive cheer and the additional opportunities it will bring for thousands of student-athletes throughout the country," Quinnipiac Director of Athletics Jack McDonald said.