PALMER TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WLVT) - Catherine Perry closely watched every move, as her group of teenage girls practiced their routine Sunday morning.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…”
Perry said she's looking for perfection every time. The girls she coaches are part of something new in the Lehigh Valley. Acrobatics and tumbling (also known as "acro & tumbling") is a sport gaining popularity across the country, and since this past fall, it's been a program at Power Athletics, which practices at Co-Op Gymnastics in Palmer Township.
"Acro & tumbling is a combination of gymnastics-like tumbling and structure and judging, but it's also a combination of cheerleading stunting," Perry said. "They've basically taken those two aspects from those two sports and kind of combined them into one sport."
More than 30 girls are part of Power Athletics' program. They start as young as five years old and go up to 17.
"I didn't want to do this at all until I actually tried it and learned all my teammates or whatever and met the coaches, and I was like, 'This is so much fun,'" said 11-year-old Desiree London, a student at Whitehall-Coplay Middle School.
"She's grown so much as an athlete, as well as a student as well as just a child," said her mother Shafara Bridges.
The program offers girls a chance to continue the sport in college and earn scholarships.
"That's what we want," Bridges said, referring to London. "We're hoping to continue to grow and just continue to build up her work ethic, and hopefully, one day, you know, she'll be seen and scouted."
"When I used to do cheering before, there was no way to get a scholarship for cheering," said 16-year-old Madison Farina, a sophomore at Easton Area High School. "So, knowing that you can get a scholarship for doing something like cheering, but in a different sport, is pretty exciting.”
"I think it's amazing because it gives another sport...another chance for more people to come experience college," added 16-year-old teammate Megan Papcsy, who goes to Bethlehem Catholic High School.
In January, the NCAA added acro & tumbling to its list of emerging sports. In the Lehigh Valley, East Stroudsburg University in Monroe County has a team. Perry said some of the girls in her program are already looking at options.
"We're really excited, because it will be our first recruit-eligible kids that will hopefully be awarded something for this sport, which will be very huge and a very awesome opportunity not only for Power Athletics, but for people to see in the Lehigh Valley that these kids on all their hard work can be paid off," she said.
The girls practice at least twice a week while balancing their schoolwork and maintaining a strict diet.
"We have meal plans, and then, we condition before and after practice, and then, we condition extra time after practice," Farina said.
"There's those times where we're jumping up and down having fun, and about two seconds later, we're like, on it -- like you have to do this and that and that," London added.
The girls are practicing for a mock meet later this month and then their first official competition before a shot at nationals.
"I can't wait! I'm so excited for that," Bridges said. "That's the part i'm waiting for."
"We only get one chance. So, we're really working hard in here all the time, trying to make the best of it," Papcsy said.
"They're really being judged and critiqued on every single thing that they do," Perry emphasized. "Every step they take, every stunt they put in the air, everything."
"Lifting people in the air is not easy. Throwing people in the air is not easy," Farina said. "Having to stay in place and not move while you have someone in your hands is not easy at all.”