Sahuaro’s cheer team is kicking this year off all set and ready with a brand new coach, welcoming Sahuaro’s new cheer coach, Emily Nutbrown. Listen as I start to tell you a little bit about coach Emily and her team’s outlook on how they are starting their year off!

Coach Emily Nutbrown is a Sahuaro alumnus – she cheered on the varsity cheer team for all four of her high school years. Now, being a coach rather than a student, she would say she “finally knows what my coaches were talking about” because “every time our coaches would get on our case, I never understood, but now that I’m in their spot, I understand where they’re coming from and what they see.” Nutbrown said, “I have more pride now that I’ve come back and I’ve done a little bit of life and I understand it.”

She started cheering at the age of six and has been in the cheer industry for twenty years. What really got her into cheer was her parents. As she expressed, “My parents forced me, but it was the best decision ever.” Her expectations and ideas for this year would be to have a cheer team that shows “what cheer is really about” and all of the hard work that goes into it and how the aftermath will be successful.

Captains of the cheer team, Ha’ane Leon Guerrero and Alyssa Orlando, started to discuss a little bit about what the team is like and the team’s goals. Ha’ane would say they have more confidence towards their stunts because they are “better” than last year’s. She feels “pretty good” about this season because they have a good group of girls and boys on their team that “show a lot of talent.” She’s very excited to see what they can do together.

“I think what makes us different as a cheer team is that we make people come together and feel excited for games and we have more energy towards football games,” expressed Co-Captain, Alyssa.

Cheerleader, Erick Gil-Reyes would say he’s feeling “more confident than ever” because he’s one of the only two boys on the cheer team. It would also be the first time in years that Sahuaro has had male cheerleaders on the team. He has stated that “not a lot of cheer teams have guys, so I would consider it different.” He would like it to be known that this year is going to be a great year for the cheer team and…..GO COUGARS!

With all that being said, with a new dedicated cheer coach, cheerleaders, and new ideas, we can all say that this year is going to be great for the 2019-2020 Sahuaro cheer team. Lets go, Sahuaro cheer team!