With the fall season coming to a close, the Oak Park Cheer team has made a difficult decision. After looking at the options with the Oak Park High School administration, they have made the decision to transition from cheer to stunt, rather than run both programs simultaneously.

With the current guidelines in place by the CIF, sports at which cheer is usually present — such as football and basketball — have not been able to resume. In order for football to return to play, Ventura County must be in the orange tier. However, the county remains in the purple tier.

“Normally this time of year, we would be working on rally routines and cheering for basketball games, while also holding stunt practices, however, since there will be little for cheer to work on once we film the final ASB videos, we have made the decision to focus solely on STUNT and finish out our 2020-21 cheer season at the end of this month,” cheer and stunt coach Kathy McCormick wrote in an email to the team.

Cheer was one of the sports that was able to hold in-person practices earlier in the year. Due to COVID-19 these practices followed the CIF guidelines and were held socially distanced. However, with the early end to the season, these practices will no longer take place.

“I feel very sad that the season is ending because I loved going to practice with the girls and bonding with all of them,” senior and varsity team member Amber Arquilevich wrote to the Talon. “I wish we had the opportunity to practice our skills more before the season ended.”

There will be no tryouts for those who wish to participate in stunt, as the program will start right away with conditioning. Members will be evaluated and potentially cut for safety reasons or if they do not uphold the team values.