Senior Etta Winterbottom, who currently is a member of the Shadow Ridge cheer program, has announced that she is going to be furthering her academic and athletic career as a part of Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio. Ursuline offers a stunt program similar to a cheer team but incorporates less performing and more technical precision with stunts, jumps, and tumbling. Winterbottom is a first year member of the Shadow Ridge cheer team as she is also a first year Mustang, however has made the most of her time at The Ridge perfecting her cheer craft every single day as a member of the varsity team where she will bring the skills she has learned into her career at Ursuline.

“Shadow cheer has helped me get ready for stunt by teaching me a lot of new stunts and giving me the opportunity to upkeep my tumbling on dead mat,” says Winterbottom. 

Winterbottom began cheering only four years ago but has proven herself as a hard worker with mass amounts of dedication. 

“I started cheering in 9th grade at my old school and have been working at making my stunting, jumps, tumbling, and dancing better each year,” Winterbottom shares. 

Winterbottom is ecstatic to begin her new chapter and try something new. 

“I’m most excited for getting to know the team and starting the season plus I know it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge but I’m excited for clinicals,” Winterbottom adds. 

She is nothing but welcoming to the change and is looking forward to expanding her horizons by developing new skills. 

“I am really excited for the change from cheer to stunt, especially since all my cheer experience is only high school cheer. I’m super excited to do college level stunts like three tiered stunts,” says Winterbottom. 

She was inspired to add some change into her life and pursue her favorite parts of the sport she loves. 

Winterbottom says, “I decided to pursue stunting because my favorite part of cheer was tumbling, stunting, and jumps and that is exactly what stunt is.”

After doing lots of research and putting the work in, Winterbottom decided that Ursuline was exactly where she wanted to be. 

“I chose Ursuline because it has direct admit nursing and I was looking for a school with a stunt team. I went to look at a bunch of schools in Ohio during the summer and winter break and that school felt like the right fit plus the coach and team was great,” Winterbottom adds. 

Not only is it an exciting journey for Winterbottom, but she is grateful to pursue this opportunity with fellow Mustang, Paige Martinez. 

“I am so excited to be going to college and be an athlete with Paige,” stated Winterbottom.

With a bright future ahead of her, be sure to keep an eye out for all she will accomplish. Wishing nothing but luck and congratulations to Winterbottom.