STUNT Proves It's Just a Game!

 April 9, 2011- Daytona Beach, FL
STUNT proves that it's just a game.  The University of Louisville, Georgia Southern University, NC State University and Framingham State University all competed in the STUNT national championship in Daytona Beach on Saturday after having competed the previous day in the NCA National Collegiate Cheerleading Championships.  Less that 24 hours separated cheerleading teams from their traditional cheerleading competition and their miraculous overnight transformation into STUNT teams or "varsity sport teams" as USA Cheer would have you believe.  All the same athletes who were merely cheerleaders the day before became athletes the following day and participated in a new sport proving that it is just a name game from one day to the next.
Speaking of games, the 4 team game took place in the Band Shell ampitheatre which was packed wall to wall the previous day from floor seating to the stands but didn't draw enough crowd to completely fill just the stands with the floor seating blocked off.  More people were crammed outside at the free for all Stuntfest activities where hundreds of cheerleaders in an unregulated hodge podge of teams mixing and mingling throw each other around and try new and even illegal skills without mats.  But the crowd that did watch STUNT (mostly fans of the teams in the game) cheered for their teams creating more enthusiasm in just supporting their team than the game itself generated with the redundant and repetitive skills and action.
Referred to as the Final Four, the gimmicky game's format pits 4 teams head to head in various events where teams do exactly the same routines and skills for comparison.  Team's alternate the possesion which gives them the ability to decide which pre-choreographed routine everyone will have to perform.  If a team selects a routine that is too hard for another team, the other team simply forfeits the round.  Time outs, whistles, referees and other gimmicks make the whole thing a bit more a game than.... well, a sport.  It's not even a good game when the other team in some cases can't even make an attempt to play, but just has to forfeit.  At least when a Div. IA football team plays a Div. II or Div. IAA team, the lesser talented team can show up and play the game.  They get a try.  Not in this game.
But then again, that's just my point.... this game!
Congratulations to the teams that participated and worked hard to even qualify for the championships.  Unfortunately, they are being misled that they are participating in something that is a sport.  They are being hoodwinked into a false sense of sport.  In the end, the idea of sport is a great one seemingly stolen from the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association's model.  However, in the end, STUNT proves that its just another cheerleading game, not a sport.