The new show “Cheer”, released on January 8th, has taken the Netflix world by storm. Watching this show will change the way you see cheerleaders and make you believe that cheer is indeed a sport. This talented group of 38 college students coached by Coach Monica Aldma (head coach), Kapena Kea (student assistant coach), and Andy Cosferent (choreographer) work all season for the biggest moment of their lives, the NCA competition in Daytona Beach, Florida. Although this may sound easy, it is very far from it. Words cannot describe how hard these athletes train every single day. They put their mental and physical health at risk every time they step onto the mat.

This all takes place at Navarro college in Corsicana, Texas. The team works day and night shedding blood, sweat, tears, and giving it their all so they will be put on the mat. Getting put on the mat is a huge deal for all of these young athletes. What that means is, you will be able to perform for the judges in Daytona Beach.

Getting ready for Daytona is a ton of work. The stunters, tumblers, and coaches devote their whole life to this sport and spend so much time training day in and day out. These hard working athletes consists of 20 year old stunter and tumbler, Gabi Butler, 22 year old flyer, Morgan Simianer, 20 year old tumbler, Lexi Brumback, 21 year old stunter and flyer, La’Darius, 18 year old stunter, Jerry Harris, 19 year old flyer, Makenzie Sherburn also known as Sherbs, 20 year old flyer, Allie Ross, stunter and flyer, Shannon Woosley, stunter and flyer, James Thomas, stunter and flyer, TT Barker, stunter and tumbler, Austin Bayles, and flyer, Ashlee Sawai. 

“Cheer” truly shows how underrated this sport is and how hard they truly work and train. It also disproves many stereotypes about cheerleaders such as “cheerleaders are all dumb blondes” and “cheerleading is just cheering on a football team and requires no hard work.” Those are both disproved within minutes of the show starting. At the moment “Cheer” is my absolute favorite show because it gives competition cheer the credit it deserves. Before watching this show, I never knew how many injuries one cheerleader can get with just one stunt and how quickly they can get them. In the first 30 minutes of the first episode three cheerleaders all got concussions from doing one pyramid. Another thing that I like about the show is that most of Navarro’s cheerleaders don’t come from the best, picture perfect situations and they talk about how cheer and Coach Monica has brought them out of their hard times and how being on this team has turned them into a better person.

Although Coach Monica is a very sweet, motherly coach, she definitely is one of the toughest coaches out there. The week before the NCA competition, she makes them do 40 “full outs” , which is when the cheerleaders do their routine “full out” flawlessly 40 times, when any stunt group drops a stunt, the cheerleaders that were in that stunt each have to do 50 push-ups and then do the stunt again while their tired so they build up their stamina, and the week before the competition they travel to different types of locations such as indoor, outdoor, hot, and cold to practice their routine, so they are ready for whatever circumstance they have to perform in. Despite all of these hardships she puts her team through, she just wants the best for her team and will defend and protect them until the end. 

Cheer in general has a lot of superstitions when it comes to competing. Navarro cheer has a couple unique ones of their own such as, you are not allowed to touch the ocean water unless you win then in that case you run into the ocean when you win, when you’re walking up to the competition you have to jump over the steps, and the last one is everyone on the team has different handshakes that they do before they go on. 

Will the Navarro cheer team run into the ocean as champions and keep their title as the NCA champions? Will they continue Navarro’s legacy and make their hardworking coaches proud? You’ll have to watch the Netflix original six part documentary, “Cheer”, to find out.

Also check out Zoe Lowe’s article, Netflix’s “CHEER”: LHS Community Comments.