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Navarro-Cheer-Good-Monica-Aldama.png

Fact Checking ‘Cheer’: Is Navarro Community College Really That Good?

By Kate Hudson | TV | January 25, 2020 |

By Kate Hudson | TV | January 25, 2020 |


Navarro-Cheer-Good-Monica-Aldama.png

One of the main points that is driven home constantly in Netflix’s Cheer is just how damn good coach Monica Aldama is and how elite Nararro Community College’s cheer program is. The entire series follows the 2019 team as they train for the National Championships and their intense rivalry with Trinity Valley Community College, who they’ll compete against in the Championships. However, if you’re like me and you did some digging around after you watched the series, you’d have learned that Navarro and Trinity Valley were the only community colleges competing in their division—which raises the question: is Navarro Community College really that good?

The short answer is: Yes, absolutely.

The longer answer is: yes, absolutely, but I’ll tell you why. What was lost in the series is that the National Championship is awarded to the best in each division, but there’s a larger prize—the Grand National Championship, which is awarded to the best overall team in all divisions. Navarro Cheer did not win the Grand National Championship the year that they filmed Cheer, however, according to their website, they have won it a whopping 6 times (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018.) You’ll note that 2017 is missing in that run, which is the year the team lost both titles and gives some context as to why coach Monica dwelled on it in the series. The team went from 5-time consecutive overall winners, to not placing in their division. That must have stung.

So while Navarro was only competing with one team in their division last year, they are good enough to compete (and win, a lot) against all teams, which is clearly what coach Monica excels at.



Header Image Source: Netflix