Fellow teammate and one of Ariana Howard’s bases, #38, Niki Khodai, a freshman at Granite Bay High School continued into stunt after the cheer season in the fall since she enjoyed the team aspect and the physical activity it provided for her. “The hardest part is probably just learning the routines and getting them into your body because there’s so many of them,” Khodai said.

Flier Savanna Carino, a sophomore at GBHS, has been doing stunt for two years now alongside cheer. She originally joined the stunt team because she was inspired by an older friend. “(My favorite memory was) beating Roseville last year because that was the first match that we won, and I think it made everyone really happy,” Carino said.

“I joined stunt team to be part of a community and make more friends and also further my knowledge of the sport,” Marlene Laughlin said. Laughlin, a sophomore at GBHS, #4, has continued into cheer and stunt the past two years after previously being a part of a competitive gymnastics team.

Stephanie Hall Jones, a junior at GBHS, has been a part of the cheer and stunt community for two years now and constantly has a positive attitude towards everything thrown at her throughout the season. “Stunt requires a serious work ethic and drive to succeed. It’s taught me to show up everyday with a refreshed motivation, no matter how difficult the last practice was, and give it my best work,” Hall Jones said.

Carino, #2, has been close with many of the girls on the team for a very long time, but has made new friends as well. “I would describe the bond on the stunt team as everyone’s pretty close because it’s a smaller team than the cheer team. Since less people do stunt it makes everyone kind of know each other better,” Carino said.

Morgan Tetz, a flier and #1, along with many other girls on the team, were very excited about the season starting because of the time and effort put into each routine. On March 3, Granite Bay lost their first match to Oakridge in their first round with a score of 20-2, but came back strong against Del Oro with a score of 16-3. “The team I am most looking forward to competing against is Whitney because last year they beat us and weren’t good sports about it, so I want to come back stronger this year and hopefully win,” Tetz said.

Audrey Griffith, Presley Berg’s base and a sophomore at GBHS, has done cheer for many years including junior Grizzlies before entering high school. “Running and conditioning is a huge part of making sure the routines look good because you have to have energy to get through quarter 4 and be able to hit. Also just reviewing counts, practicing over and over again is all the work you have to put in to make the routine look good,” Griffith said.

Tetz has shown her love for both cheer and stunt by continuing to be a member of the team from her freshman to her junior year of high school. “The hardest routine to learn in my opinion would be partner stunts, level 6. This routine was the hardest because the skills are a lot harder than the lower levels and some of the skills I have never done before so it takes longer to learn,” Tetz said.

The three head coaches of the stunt team are Emily Larson, Cierra Barker and Bri Anganes. This is Barker’s second year coaching for the GBHS stunt and cheer team. As for Anganes, she has been the stunt coach for several years now. Barker and Larson are GBHS graduates themselves and were both members of the cheer team during their years in high school. “The coaches are very close with the team and are persistent in pushing us to our fullest extent, while also showing us that they care about us on a personal level,” Hall Jones said.