Canisius Welcomes New Acro Tumbling Team to Campus

By: Kaitlyn Belile, Assistant Features Editor

On Nov. 1, 2024, Canisius athletics announced the school’s 21st varsity sport: acrobatics and tumbling. 

In the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA), there are a total of 54 programs included in the association and only 12 teams are a part of the NCAA Division I programs, with Canisius being its newest member. 

The head coach, Mel Goulding, is coming to Canisius after being an assistant coach at Buffalo State for two years, with a total of 13 years experience in the acro field. Goulding announced her assistant coaches, Cam Bryant and Susannah Balderstone, soon after she was named head coach. Bryant is coming from Texas Lutheran, after being the head coach there for the past three seasons. Balderstone is coming to Canisius after spending five years at Limestone University. There, she both coached and participated on the team, helping take the team to four consecutive Conference Carolina Championships, where she was an athlete for three years and spent one as an assistant coach. 

Goulding grew up in Buffalo and has described the treatment from the community as phenomenal. She says that “Canisius did it right when adding a program.” This will be the second school that she helps to build up after being the assistant coach at Buffalo State during its inaugural season. Goulding talks about how Canisius was “very intentional with their decision-making, budget, roster numbers. They really kept the student experience in mind when deciding that final roster number.” The school knew that with a greater number of athletes, it might be harder to have all of the athletes feel connected. 

Goulding explained that acrobatics and tumbling is a combination of cheerleading and gymnastics. According to Goulding, “we take skill elements from the floor of gymnastics, and then we combine them with some elements of stunting from cheer.” In a meet, there are six heats and after each one they are scored. The six heats are: compulsory, acro, pyramid, toss, tumble and team. The meet consists of two or three teams competing against each other and each team competes in 20 heats and is evaluated by a panel of judges. The score is based on the starting difficulty and execution of declared skills. 

Aniyah Trippet, a transfer sophomore from Long Island University (LIU) majoring in sports management, is excited to be a part of the inaugural team after competing with LIU. Trippet began competitive gymnastics when she was six and competed until she was 17. She says that “since the minute I got here, it has been nothing but positive people all around me.” 

Bella LoDico, a junior from Wales, NY, is a sports and exercise healthcare major on the pre-med track who has joined the acro and tumbling team after being on the dance team here for the past two years. LoDico has a background in dance, unlike a lot of the team who came from gymnastics or cheer. She says that in dance, “[she] did acro growing up with [her] studio, and that was one of [her] favorite styles.” 

The team will compete in their first home meet on Feb. 22 in the Koessler Athletic Center. Get excited to show up and show out for the team for their inaugural season!