Bulldog Cheerleaders Soar to New Heights 

by Jacy Johnston 

The Concordia cheer team will be flying to new heights thanks to the introduction of stunting into the program.

“We got a new coach, so she has experience stunting and experience working with other squads,” senior cheer team captain Katherine Vogel said. “She kind of really pushed for the school to allow us to stunt.” Vogel explained that insurance issues had held stunting back before.

The Nebraska State Activities Association, working with the Universal Cheerleaders Association, will now allow limited stunting for Nebraska high schools as well. While Vogel and other out of state cheerleaders stunted in high school, the state of Nebraska has only recently made changes.

At Concordia, this makes for a unique team dynamic of rookies and returners to stunting. The 20-member team attended camp this summer in Hastings for the first time.

“A lot of the camp was specifically just stunting,” Vogel said. “So we worked on basic skills during the first day, and the helpers introduced crazy stunts, but obviously we just tried to get our basic things down.”

With the increased difficulty level of stunting, the team has experienced a closer bond.

“We do have our individual stunt groups, and girls are in specific groups, but we are all working towards the same goal or the same stunt or skill,” Vogel said. “It’s nice to just be able to help each other and see where each other is struggling.”

The cheer team will incorporate their new stunting skills in routines during the football games. In addition to their game time performances, the cheer team will once again compete in competitive cheer. However, there will be new competition for the squad to face.

“This year will be the first year that we are in the stunting category of competition too,” Vogel said. “Last year and the years before we were in the non-stunting group.”

Overall, the team looks forward to a great coming year on the field supporting other Bulldog teams and in competition, too.

“I think we are just really excited to show off what we can do and to keep getting better, because obviously it is a new thing for a lot of us,” Vogel said. “(We are) rebuilding some of those skills that we haven’t done in a while.”