PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — George Fox University Cheer and Stunt Program Director Reba McLennan and her coaching staff took the Bruins' cheer squad from a club team in 2018 that was filed under Marketing —  to just this last year, a team under Athletics that is recognized as a sanctioned Division III Cheer and Stunt Team.

It was a goal of McLennan’s to one-day field a team to compete in Stunt when she first arrived on campus six years ago.

Now that these cheer and stunt team members are George Fox student athletes and not just a club team, they are doing something the Northwest Conference has never seen before.

“We had three tournaments – one in Arizona and two in California and it was about our second tournament and they publish rankings every week, kind of like any other sport would,” McLennan explained of the 2024 season last spring, “and we slowly got further and further up on the rankings.”

And in their inaugural season last year they accomplished something that many programs don’t even come close to achieving -- a third place finish at Nationals in all of Division III Stunt.

They finished in the top three of the country while competing in a game that was so unknown to this squad and to freshman at the time, Morgan Lewis and Makaylee Kuiken. In their own words last year was --- “crazy.”

“The moment we realized we qualified, when I tell you – everybody burst into tears including ourselves it was one of the best feelings in the world,” Morgan said.

“It was crazy because most of us came from a high school where none of us had competed before,” Makaylee added.

The Lady Bruins are currently the only Stunt Team competing as part of their school’s athletic department here in the Pacific Northwest and the only West Coast DIII school.

And with the teams competing side-by-side, the strategy behind calling different routines is something that set George Fox apart.

It’s not just about skill and technique. The play calling has to be next level and it certainly is under Reba and her staff.

“We were in head-to-head games against other teams who are putting up these elite level stunts and elite level tumbling skills,” Morgan described. "So we format it like a football game. So there’s four quarters with partner stunts, and pyramids and tosses, jumps and tumbling and combined team routines… It is a head-to-head competition. Going team-to-team with these same routines.”

Here in the PNW, competing in Stunt is not part of high school athletics.

California is the closest state that has High School Stunt. This upcoming Stunt season in the spring, the Bruins will have a few new members that do have a stunting background from California.

But what’s next in year 2 for the Bruins?

“Last year, we were part of just with Alma, we were the only two D III teams that ended up putting a ‘partner stunt 7’ out and ‘pyramids and tosses 3’ out,” Makaylee said. “So we really want to keep putting out those higher skills and keep sharpening those skills that we already have and getting more to that elite level.”

The program has already almost doubled in size too, going from 19 members last year to 36 this year.

There’s no doubt that the Bruins are quickly making a name for themselves— putting both George Fox and stunt on the map.