California Baptist University

STUNTING ON THE COMPETITION New athletic team pursues cheer excellence

C alifornia Baptist University introduces its brand-new STUNT team to the athletics department with a new team and head coach. After announcing that a STUNT team would be added to the athletics program in spring 2020, the team original ly consisted only of cheer members to get a feel for how STUNT would function in the fall. Head coach Brandon Seagondollar has since recruited new members for the team as well as transitioning of members of the cheer team to become solely STUNT athletes. Now that STUNT is its own team, it can focus on the required skill set needed to perform a STUNT specific routine. Seagondollar explains STUNT as, “a game that involves four quarters in a match where each team goes on the floor at the same time and performs a set routine of skills the team who demonstrates the most precision, cleanest skill, and over all performs the routine the best is awarded the point. At the end of each match, a winner is announced based on the cumulative points earned throughout the match.” Seagondollar is described by his athletes as “psyched” and into the game. Back spot and ju nior health science major Serena Roberts believes Seagondollar is an invested coach. “Brandon is a good coach because he is super involved,” Roberts says. “I feel like all coaches are super involved in their team because that’s their job, but Brandon is on another level of psyched. He also cares about us indi vidually and how we are as people, not just athletes.” While COVID-19 canceled chances of fall competi tions, the cheer team continues to practice toward excel lence this academic year.