The California Baptist stunt team forms a military-style line and stands at attention.
Whether it's practice in an empty gym or in front of the crowd and their opponent at a game, the young women stand silently until coach Brandon Seagondollar points to a team member.
When she's called upon, she steps out of line, raises her chin and screams at the top of her lungs, "I AM A CHAMPION!"
What should you expect watching a stunt game? "A fast, intense, very athletic hour," California Baptist coach Brandon Seagondollar said. "It puts all the athletic ability of every sport into one amazing game. The footwork, the athletic ability, the mental toughness, it's extremely exhilarating." (Photos courtesy of Maddie Arochi)
Then she steps back into line, and Seagondollar calls on someone else. After a few athletes have gone, the entire team screams, "WE ARE CHAMPIONS!"
Then they begin their warmup.
Stunt resembles a Cirque du Soleil performance. Competitors flip 360 degrees onto the legs of two teammates. They fly into teammates' arms upside down. They form a 14-person pyramid, hitting the position together with a smile.
During practices, Seagondollar demands perfect execution of each skill 10 times in a row. They move through a series of jumps, pyramids, tosses, twists and turns completely in sync, following a specific count and step pattern. If a single movement, step or smile is off, they start over.
"We're not trying to do it right. We're trying to do it until we can't do it wrong," Seagondollar said.
Maddie Arochi, a junior and the 2025 College Stunt Coaches Association Athlete of the Year, explained: "We try to make practice as intense as possible so that when you get to games, it's so easy. You're mentally already there based on practice."
Their method works. California Baptist has won every single game in its history. Heading into their sixth season, the Lancers are 107-0, with five national titles in the college championship run by USA Cheer.
USA Cheer developed stunt as a distinct competitive sport that emphasizes athleticism, technique and head-to-head competition. At the beginning of each season, USA Cheer sends out 12 routines for teams to master, along with 12 routines rolling over from the previous year.
Games consist of two teams competing throughout four quarters. In competition, coaches will call out plays, and the opposing team can accept or pass on the play call. Points and scoring are execution-based.
Stunt's rapid growth led it to become an NCAA Emerging Sport for Women in 2023 for Divisions I and II, with Division III following the next year. This year, stunt reached NCAA championship status, with the first National Collegiate Stunt Championship set to be held in 2027.
For these student-athletes, NCAA status means more than winning the iconic trophy. It recognizes the grit, athleticism and dedication it takes to participate in their sport.
"Becoming an NCAA sport is validation for myself and all those younger girls who are ever told what they do isn't a sport. At the end of the day, we're some of the most athletic people. While other people lift weights, we're lifting people," said Savannah Eshleman, a junior and second-team CSCA All-American.
California Baptist's program has helped spur the growth of the sport.
"In every pillar of the sport — from club stunt to high school to even other college teams — you see how CBU's stunt has changed and manifested the sport into something completely different than it was 15 years ago," said Brodi Perrault, graduate assistant and former California Baptist stunt student-athlete.
This is how.
A stunt trailblazer
Seagondollar first joined the cheer team in eighth grade to impress his crush. In high school, he cheered and played baseball and football. He played two years of junior college baseball and had a stint at a police academy before returning to college on a full-ride cheer scholarship to Hawaii.
After five years as California Baptist's assistant cheerleading coach, the vice president of athletics, Micah Parker, encouraged Seagondollar to create a stunt program at the school. At first, he hesitated.
"Coming from the cheer side, it's a little bit more creative, and stunt was a little bit more structured. You had to stay in this box," he said. "But I believed in God's plan and dove headfirst into it."
The team motto became "all in."
Brandon Seagondollar gathers with stunt team members (from left) Maddie Arochi, Miah Baro, Abby Eshleman and Savannah Eshleman.
"We weren't, at that point, trying to be undefeated or win a national championship," he said. "We were trying to get the sport known and buy into being the best version of ourselves."
In the same year, Seagondollar became a first-time father. The girl dad had an epiphany.
"My father instincts came out, and I wanted to provide more opportunities for these female athletes and teach the toughness of the real world. I wanted to have them understand that toughness, that grit, the perseverance when times get hard, not to give up, but to keep moving forward."
He created intense, challenging practices. He wanted his team to strive for perfection every time they stepped on the mat. He calls it "faith it until you make it."
"Early on as a coach, I realized that kids will rise up when the opportunity is presented. Athletes will rise up. Athletes have it in them. You just have to provide the confidence."
Seagondollar bought his players journals to reflect before practice. The days of the week got new meanings: Motivation Monday, Gratitude Tuesday, Devotional Wednesday, Teammate Thursday. The team works with on-campus sports psychologist Ed Garrett, widely known as Dr. G, to practice mental training.
Yet even with an undefeated record, Seagondollar doesn't pretend to have everything figured out.
"I'm always changing how I coach every year. It's probably really unorthodox as a coach. Sometimes we'll randomly play dodgeball because I'm like, 'If I'm tired right now, they're tired.' I'm always just trying to feel the room."
The team appreciates Seagondollar's humility, and his militant-style expectations are balanced with strong relationships.
"Everyone thinks he's so scary, and that is not at all true," Eshleman said. "He's my coach, but he's also like a friend to me. I literally can come to him for anything, and he is always there to help me out."
Perrault said, "He cares about us so deeply outside of the sport of stunt. He demands that expectation, but he also treats every single one of us like we're family to him. It's not something you see often in college coaches, especially college coaches of this winning caliber."
CBU also includes a key component in every routine: joy.
After every movement they hit, they throw their arms up and their heads back, smiles shining. Teammates not involved in the routine are on the sidelines cheering and clapping.
This enticed Arochi during the recruiting process.
"Some teams have stone-cold faces. They just get the task done. I liked how the CBU stunt looked like they enjoyed what they were doing. ... I see now that it came from how they practice," she said.
"I'm a hard-working athlete. I loved that drive, I love the competitiveness, and they had all of it," she added. "I was like, 'I want to be here.'"
Perrault, who had dreamed of becoming a college cheerleader, said stunt provided the opportunity to continue her athletics career.
"Stunt opened a whole new door for me athletically because I was able to be specialized in my skill set. It offers athletes like myself a better opportunity to be recruited and expand our careers to the college level."
"It's just so cool to see us receive the same treatment as the baseball team, to see us as equals with the basketball team, all those traditional sports. Now there's an opportunity for younger girls in cheerleading or tumbling or gymnastics to see that there's another possibility, another opportunity for them to pursue college athletics," Savannah Eshleman said.
California Baptist's integration of faith into the sport also drew recruits into the program.
"We're not here to win a championship. We're here to praise God, and we're here to teach younger generations for what is to come in their future. That's our goal," Arochi said. "We do it to serve our community and everyone around us."
Becoming champions
Ultimately, Seagondollar has shaped champions both on and beyond the mat.
When he first called on Eshleman to scream "champion," she admits she felt serious discomfort.
"It just felt wrong, in a way," she reflected.
"Now I see why we do it. … When you yell 'champion,' it's not just champion in stunt. It's being a champion in life. We're champions for each other. We're champions for our family. We're champions for our hopes and dreams. Over time, you just start to believe it."
In January, stunt reached NCAA championship status after being part of the Emerging Sports for Women program.
For Seagondollar, being a champion is not about winning or losing — even though there's a lot of winning. It's about empowering his student-athletes to fundamentally believe that they can conquer the world.
"At some point, athletics is going to end, but the lessons in those disciplinary factors, and the idea that you can be a champion and you can hold yourself to a higher standard, shows the ceiling isn't there for you. We're trying to teach these kids to never give up because there's so much more for them to give inside."
In the California Baptist stunt program, these young women don't just become phenomenal athletes. They become confident people, ready to take on the world.
Seagondollar's daughters, Ireland, 5, and Harper, 3, are also picking up on that confidence.
One day, after he and his wife, Emily, put Ireland down for a nap, they heard a noise through the monitor.
She had lined up her stuffed animals and made each one of them yell, "I AM A CHAMPION!"
"I was in shock," he said. "I was almost in tears because it's what she sees. She sees these athletes, and she loves the team, and they all care about her. She looks up to them.
"This is what matters. Right here, all these little girls that look up to you and this platform you have, you can impact so many of these kids and have them believe in you."
Get a behind-the-scenes look at California Baptist's fifth national championship here.
