Northwest Vista cheerleaders earned a bid for a national competition in Daytona Beach, FL but a district policy wouldn’t allow them to travel more than 175 miles.
SAN ANTONIO — Cheerleaders at Northwest Vista continue to make history.
In 2024, for the first time, an Alamo Colleges cheer team earned a bid to compete at nationals in Daytona Beach, Florida.
A school travel policy, however, prevented them from participating.
The team fought for months to get the policy changed.
Two weeks ago, in another historic moment, the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees voted in their favor.
“The board told us we are not allowed to attend due to an issue that happened 15 years ago with a basketball team,” said former Northwest Vista Cheerleader, Derek Laird, in the team’s first interview with KENS in August 2024.
Last fall, Northwest Vista’s cheer team faced a life-changing dilemma.
At the time, policy allowed student-athletes and club sports to travel only within a 175-mile radius. It was a rule put in place May 2009 and revised in 2016.
“A speech club can go, a chess club can go around the nation. We work just as hard as they do. So why aren’t we getting the same opportunity?” said Northwest Vista Cheerleader Christian Lazaga during our previous interview.
The team tried signing petitions, writing letters to the board and working with student government but their efforts yielded no progress.
Their dream seemed out of reach.
“So we went through the media, we finally got heard,” said Laird. “People didn’t even know we had a cheer team.”
The same day our first report aired, Alamo Colleges vowed to revisit the policy in the coming months. While support for Northwest Vista Cheer came from all directions, including their coach and Northwest Vista College President, Dr. Amy Bosley, they ultimately needed a policy change by the Board of Trustees to get to nationals.
“Our students, just like everything else, they’re just getting better and better,” said Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Success, Debi Gaitan, to the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees during a January 14 meeting. “Competing at a local level has been very fulfilling for many of our students but the limitation has kept our students from state competition and even national competitions. They have earned that opportunity to be recognized and be seen at that level.”
January 28, board members voted to allow special exceptions for travel, only when approved by the college president and the Chancellor.
Even with the good news, the cheer team will not be going to the national competition in Daytona Beach.
“We needed to save money for Daytona. It was gonna be $2,000 an athlete and if we had a definite ‘yes,’ then we would have been able to plan for that. We didn’t have one,” Laird explained, saying they would only utilize a small portion of the student activity fund and pay the rest out of pocket.
Laird, who led the team’s efforts, says the approval simply came too late. Many cheerleaders, most of whom only attend Alamo Colleges for two years, decided to quit the team. The NCA college nationals in Daytona are April 9 through 13.
“Why am I here putting all my time into this sport, and I don’t even know if I’m gonna be able to go and compete, you know what I mean? So, people just began to lose hope and people decided not to return this upcoming semester,” said Laird, who decided to leave the team himself. “I think the decision was outstanding, but I do think it should have been made years ago.”
While Laird’s time on the cheer team came to an end, he continued flighting for change.
Although Laird’s dream of competing in nationals couldn’t happen at Northwest Vista College, he knows his team’s hard work will pay off for other Alamo Colleges athletes in the years to come.
“We did it for not only Northwest Vista Cheer, but we did it for all five Alamo Colleges and all the athletics, everyone who came before, everyone who’s there now, and everyone who’s gonna come after,” he added. “We walked so they can run. So understand, never take no for an answer. If you’re ever told ‘no’, fight it even harder.”