With its first competition only weeks away, the newly formed Oregon women’s team stunts and gymnastics squad appears to be more than ready to show the University what they can do.
 
And now that head coach Felecia Mulkey — a true pioneer in the world of competitive cheer — has nearly a full roster to work with, the unknown future of team stunts and gymnastics looks brighter by the day.
 
“It’s been a long time coming,” Mulkey said. “I can’t believe we’re finally to the point where we have uniforms and a whole team.”
 
When the program was originally taken on last winter, Mulkey’s team consisted of only seven girls, which made competing impossible and practice exceptionally difficult.
 
“Practicing with seven was kind of difficult because all we could do was tumble,” senior Tori Mayard said. “It was really hard to be motivated when we only had
seven people.”
 
Mayard, who followed Mulkey across the country from Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga., was a highly touted talent coming out of high school in 2004 after her high school team won four straight Louisiana State and National Championships.
 
She is also one of only two seniors on the team, though Mulkey feels that her squad is has a plethora of talent regardless of age.
 
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” Mulkey said. “But the great thing is that all of the talent is coming out of high school right now. Some of our freshmen are phenomenal, we’re not lacking anything talent wise with those younger kids at all.”
 
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, a total of 117,793 girls participated in some form of competitive spirit squads at 4,748 schools during the 2008-09 academic year. And with those numbers continuing to grow, Mulkey appears to be at the forefront of making the team stunts and gymnastics program into an official NCAA sanctioned sport.
 
During September, Mulkey attended a meeting at University of Maryland, where she met with each of the head coaches, sport administrators, athletics directors and senior women administrators of the universities that have already added, or are considering adding, team stunts and gymnastics to their roster of varsity sports.
 
“We’re creating a governing body for this sport that will eventually be an NCAA sport,” Mulkey said. “There’s already a governing body out there, but this one will be specifically for team stunts and gymnastics, and this one will take it to the next level.”
 
Taking it to the next level is nothing new for Mulkey, who hopes that this governing body will be able to present its proposal to the NCAA for official emerging sport status by next February. By definition, an emerging sport for women is a sport that is recognized by the NCAA that is intended to provide additional athletics opportunities to female student-athletes.
 
If the activity meets the definition of a sport, then the proposal and 10 commitment letters will be submitted to the Committee of Women’s Athletics, along with several other criteria that the must be met in order for approval.
 
“We’re bound by NCAA guidelines through the University,” Mulkey said. “We’re not an emerging sport yet, but we’re currently at six schools recognizing the sport like we are, and we need four more.”
 
In the mean time Mulkey’s squad members have been getting familiar, something that is crucial when it comes to building a program from scratch. And now with 30 members on the team, practices have been much more protective compared to last year.
 
With an entirely new group of student-athletes working together, and more than half of them underclassmen, the Ducks will have a lot of people wondering what exactly their first competition will illustrate come Nov. 21.
 
“They ask us all the time, ‘What do you guys do?’” freshman Samantha Schulze said. “So they don’t really know what it’s like yet, but they’re really excited to see what we can be.”
 
Schulze commented that Mulkey and the team stunts and gymnastics program is what originally attracted her to Oregon, and since then has thrived under Mulkey’s guidance.
 
“It’s been awesome,” Schulze said of working with Mulkey. “She’s really good and knows what it’s going to take to win a national championship. She’s going to push us to be the best we can be.”
 
Mulkey is no stranger to the national stage, having won two national championship titles during her 11-year coaching career at Kennesaw State.
 
Angela Ucci, a member of both of those championship squads in 2004 and 2005, will be joining Mulkey this year as her assistant. Ucci was a five-time All-American during her
collegiate career and should prove to be an invaluable
addition to Oregon squad.
 
“She knows my philosophy,” Mulkey explained. “I knew it would be a seamless transition, and she relates well to the kids. There is no one else that could do her job right now in the world. I can’t be happier with my staff.”
 
After a year of hard work, Mulkey and her squad will finally be able to compete, but in the grand scheme of things they will still have to play the waiting game when it comes to being recognized as a collegiate sport. But that isn’t something the team is worried about at this point with their main focus on improving each day.
 
“That’s what we’re working on right now,” said Mulkey. “Getting the team to mesh, understanding the team philosophy and getting that hard mindset rather than the mindset that you have coming out of high school. We’ve made huge strides with that in the past week and I can’t wait to see what they’re going to be in a month.”
 
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