TVCC Cheer wins small coed national championship for first time in program history

ATHENS, Texas (KLTV) - Trinity Valley Community College’s cheer team secured a 13th national championship this weekend in Daytona, Florida.

For the first time in school history, they sent a small coed team to compete at the National Cheerleaders Association Championships. The team won their six-team division for the national title, scoring a 96.3982 in the Junior College Advanced Small Coed finals.

In a press release from TVCC, we learned that the team has dealt with injuries in the last few weeks. According to the release, they lost three key athletes, with one injury occurring two days before leaving for Daytona.

The team is expected to be back in Athens this evening to a nice welcome from the community.

This is the second year of competition for student-athletes Gabriella Perez and Tyler Delacruz.

“I was very nervous because it was a very, very close call. Whenever I heard our name, I just broke down. I remember just crying. I was like we actually did this,” Perez said.

“And then afterward, after you come down from that adrenaline rush, it’s amazing because you realize the camaraderie that went into achieving something like that. It’s so much greater than usually the championship,” Delacruz said.

Small and large coed teams can compete with up to 20 athletes. Small is limited to a maximum of four males while large can have up to 11 males. Scoring is the same for both teams.

Dodge City Community College from Kansas was second to TVCC with a score of 95.9722.

Cardinal Cheer has won titles in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2022.

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