STUNT

STUNT is an all-girl sport that takes elements from all-star/competitive cheerleading and sideline cheerleading and creates a new sport that follows NCAA guidelines. It gives female athletes the opportunity to continue their athletic career at the collegiate level. STUNT consists of tumbling, jumping, and stunting in a 4-quarter format similar to a basketball game. With COVID, club sports have been in a series of waiting games as to when we could practice and what the new regulations would be on campus. For me, as a member of UK STUNT Club, we couldn't practice until the end of August. With these practices, we could only have groups of 10 or less and everyone had to remain 6 feet apart. This was easy given we practice in the gym and if you needed to pull your mask down for a brief minute, no one was close to you so it felt safe. However, we were unable to stunt which really sucked because that's my favorite part. Last week we were notified that we could begin stunting which was really exciting...or so I thought. This was pretty scary because it meant that we would be within less than a foot of each other as well as making physical contact. We have to wear masks, but it gets really hot with all of the working out and physical activity so a lot of girls pull down their masks which makes us all more susceptible to COVID. It's scary to think that if girls on the team still go out and party on Thursdays, and then come to practice Sunday, that they could possible have contracted the virus and given it to the rest of the team. Just a few weeks prior to being able to stunt, we had to quarantine and cancel practice for two weeks due to someone on the team testing positive for COVID. Given that we are all in close contact with each other, I've decided to get tested once a week for my own safety, as well as the rest of the girls. I hope this is something the team also considers doing so we don't have to miss two weeks and quarantine again.