Staff
ByScott Swanson
Sweet Home’s Breanna Froemke signed a letter of intent Friday, Nov. 16, to compete in acrobatics and tumbling at Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area.
Froemke, who transferred to Sweet Home from West Albany as a junior, is the first Husky of the Class of 2013 to sign a letter of intent to compete at the college level. She signed during a ceremony held in the school library, with her parents Jill and Jay Froemke and coach Amber Rosa with her at the table.
She said she applied to a number of universities and colleges that offer the sport, a new one created five years ago specifically to give women opportunities in college athletics.
Azusa Pacific (along with the University of Oregon) was one of the founding members of the National Collegiate Stunts and Tumbling Association.
“They’re one of the few schools to offer acrobatics and tumbling,” said Breanna Froemke, who plans to major in exercise science, with a minor in psychology.
She said she has been involved in cheer for 10 years, both in high school and as a member of the Oregon Dream Team in Portland, considered the top club cheer program in the Northwest.
“I wanted to do more the competition side of it,” she said of her decision to go to APU. “I’m not that interested in being on the sideline.”
APU Head Coach Colleen Kausrud said she expects Froemke to fit in well.
“Breana is a breath of fresh air,” she said. “She’s excited to come here. She came in a year ago and then she did a tryout this year. It’s exciting.”
Last year’s roster listed 23 women, all but two from California, but Kausrud said this year’s will include athletes from across the nation, including two others from Oregon.
“We have two from Chicago, one from Pennsylvania and three or four from Washington State,” she said. “We’re kind of pulling from everywhere. It’s exciting to see it grow. We’re always excited to get new athletes from different areas.”
Acrobatics and tumbling is a cross between gymnastics and competitive cheerleading, she said. Competitions last an hour and a half, unlike competitive cheer, which is generally judged based on performance of a single routine that lasts a couple of minutes. Hitherto governed by the NCSTA, athletics and tumbling is in the final stages of becoming an NCAA-approved sport, she said.
Like a gymnastics competition, competitions include a variety of heats that include tumbling, tosses and acrobatics, which are scored according to established requirements.
“The last event is a routine where there are 24 on the floor, competing to music,” Kausrud said. “Our campus is very, very blessed to have a student body that loves our sport. It’s the highest-attended female sport on campus. We draw more than men’s basketball team sometimes.”
Rosa, whose Huskies won the 4A state cheerleading competition last spring, said she was pleased to see one of her athletes sign to go to college and she hopes there will be more.
“It’s awesome,” Rosa said. “I’m really, really excited. As the program grows and kids get involved, I’d like to see more and more go in this direction, cheering in college.”