Yes, they perform their own stunts.

The Salem High School winter spirit team, led by several experienced stunt groups, won the Class L competition on Saturday, March 14, to take the state title and continue its season at least through next weekend’s New England event.

Pelham High School finished fourth in the Class I competition, won by Pembroke Academy.

Salem’s head coach, Colleen O’Shea, said she was taken aback when her team’s firstplace finish was announced at Southern New Hampshire University, despite what she felt was a stellar performance.

“There are usually three or four teams near the top, and it could have gone to any one of them,” said O’Shea. “We’ve always been relatively good in the past and haven’t won in a few years. They weren’t expecting to win, but they were hoping for it. I was completely surprised because never before had every team competed so well.”

O’Shea’s squad has a combination of youth and veteran leadership, which was one of the main elements to the state championship season.

“I have a large group of freshmen, so the fall was kind of difficult to get the new kids in the game, but they figured it out after a season,” said O’Shea. “It helps a lot because we have kids who have been together, and a lot of them have the same stunt group from the previous season.”

After struggling in the fall, the Blue Devils came together quickly in the winter season, and O’Shea said the team’s starting point was much higher in the second campaign than the first. Particularly helpful for Salem was having stunt groups – the section of girls who perform the aerial portion of the routine – who have been working together for upwards of a year.

“It was probably the best competition that they’ve ever been in,” said O’Shea. “Their tumbling was higher up there than the other teams, and the whole pace of the routine was fast.”

Though the new Windham high school results in the loss of two members of the coach’s current freshman class, O’Shea remains optimistic.

“The kids from Salem are extremely talented,” she said. “I haven’t had this much freshman talent since the girls who are seniors now.”