Extreme sports are usually associated with aerial acrobatics and hospital visits. But at Waterloo High School last Wednesday, there was a special message.

WHS hosted an all-school assembly — offered at two times during the day — where extreme sports athletes put their best tricks on display.

“We felt that this was a great way to disseminate information regarding the ‘No Place for Hate’ theme to our students in a manner that they would enjoy and grab their attention,” WHS assistant principal Christy Osterhage said.

ASA Entertainment is an action sports company, but they also put on assemblies throughout the United States to pass along the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” campaign.

The assembly at WHS included five professional athletes who have competed in events such as X-Games — probably the most famous action sporting event in the world. The event is sponsored by the Marines.

“This is an anti-bullying campaign put on by ASA Action Sports and sponsored by the Marines,” Sergeant Erik Brooks said. “Basically, these pro BMXers, skateboarders and inline skaters — X-Games gold medalists — they come out and give the students a show and also put in the positive anti-bullying message. The Marines are here to sponsor it.”

Brooks said it fits the Marines message about inspiring everyone to be their best.

During the assembly students could receive free prizes (from the Marines and ASA Entertainment) and autographs. An emcee keeps everyone engaged by interacting with students during the performance. In this case, he spoke about bullying as well as asked students questions.

Josh Stafford, a skateboarder, has been part of the tour for the past couple years.

“They’ve been doing the high school tour for 17 years now,” Stafford said. “The Marines have been with us for quite awhile. For the past two years it’s been an anti-bullying campaign and before that it was an anti-tobacco campaign. It’s just to spread positive messages to kids.”

He also gets to visit the country doing the tour.

“It is fun. It’s not like we have to get quite as crazy like a contest,” Stafford said. “But it’s nice because depending on how hyped the kids get, we get hyped up. It ends up being a good show. It’s cool coming to a place like this because I’m from San Diego. So, it’s cool to come to places where people don’t get to see action sports as much. Especially riding a vert ramp, which are pretty few and far between in the Midwest. It’s a different kind of show and cool to show people.”

More information on the “No Place for Hate” anti-bullying campaign can be found at stlouis.adl.org/initiatives/no-place-for-hate.

“When the opportunity came to us to have ASA Entertainment speak and perform to our students​, free of cost, we definitely wanted to take advantage of the opportunity in order to give them a meaningful experience, teaching valuable life lessons,” Osterhage said. “We are very thankful to the Marines for sponsoring the program and to ASA for providing us the unique experience.”