Monica Aldama (born February 9, 1972) is an American

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

coach. She is the coach of the co-ed cheerleading team at

Navarro College Navarro College is a public community college in Texas with its main campus in Corsicana and branches in Fairfield, Mexia, Midlothian, and Waxahachie. The college has an annual student enrollment of more than 9,000 students. The Corsicana ...

Corsicana, Texas Corsicana is a city in Navarro County, Texas, United States. It is located on Interstate 45, 56 miles northeast of Waco, Texas. The population was 23,770 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Navarro County, and an important Agri-busines ...

Education

A graduate of

Corsicana High School Corsicana Independent School District is a public school district based in Corsicana, Texas, United States. In addition to Corsicana, the district serves the central Navarro County towns of Angus, Mustang, Oak Valley, Retreat, and Richland. ...

, Aldama enrolled at

Tyler Junior College Tyler Junior College (TJC) is a public community college in Tyler, Texas. It is one of the largest community colleges in Texas, with an enrollment of more than 12,500 credit students each year with an additional 20,000 continuing education enroll ...

where she joined the cheerleading squad. She subsequently transferred to the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

where she earned a BBA in

Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

from the

McCombs School of Business The McCombs School of Business (McCombs School or McCombs) is a business school at The University of Texas at Austin, a public research university in Austin, Texas. In addition to the main campus in Downtown Austin, McCombs offers classes outside ...

, and was a member of the

Zeta Tau Alpha Zeta Tau Alpha (known as or Zeta) is an international Fraternities and sororities in North America, women's fraternity founded on October 15, 1898 at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. Its Internatio ...

women's fraternity. She went on to graduate from the

University of Texas at Tyler The University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler) is a public research university in Tyler, Texas. Founded in 1971, it is a part of the University of Texas System. UT Tyler consists of five professional colleges and one traditional college of arts and ...

with a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

Achievement in coaching

Under Aldama's leadership, the Navarro College Bulldogs have earned a national reputation for excellence in cheerleading. Since 2000, Aldama's squads have won 15 NCA National Championships in their division, in addition to 6 "Grand National" designations. Grand National status is bestowed upon the team with the highest overall score in that year's competition. Aldama's team also holds the record for the highest score achieved at NCA College Nationals. Her cheerleading program has been called a "

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

" and her athletes refer to her as the "Queen." Aldama's success has had her appear on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was prod ...

'' and Oprah's live tour.

Appearance in ''Cheer''

In 2020, Aldama featured in a

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

docuseries Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

titled ''

Cheer Cheering involves the uttering or making of sounds and may be used to encourage, excite to action, indicate approval or welcome. The word cheer originally meant face, countenance, or expression, and came through Old French into Middle English ...

'', whose focus on the 2019 Navarro College coed cheerleading team served to introduce the sport to a wide audience. ''Cheer'' was directed by

documentarian A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

Greg Whiteley Greg Beck Whiteley (born November 11, 1969) is the creator, executive producer, and director of the Netflix documentary series ''Cheer'' (2020–2022) and ''Last Chance U'' (2016–2020). His films include ''New York Doll'' (2005), '' Resolved'' ...

, who until this series was best known for his football-related documentary ''

Last Chance U ''Last Chance U'' is an American documentary streaming television series that is produced and premiered by Netflix. The six-episode first season explores the football program at East Mississippi Community College, which features several collegi ...

''. Both series empathetically follow college athletes struggling with injuries and challenges in their personal lives. ''Cheer'' centers its narrative on Aldama's mentorship, which is generally nurturing even as mounting injuries to her athletes lead her to make pragmatic decisions in support of the team's goal of winning the national championship at

Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal Resort town, resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County, Florida, Volusia County near the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coastline, its population ...

. Responses to the series' representation of Aldama highlight the resultant tension. Television critic

Hank Stuever Hank Stuever (born 1968) is an American journalist who writes about popular culture for the ''Style'' section of ''The Washington Post''. Early life and education Stuever was born and raised in Oklahoma City, where he attended Bishop McGuinn ...

of the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' describes Aldama's dedication as "fierce (and occasionally fearsome)." To critic

Jia Tolentino Jia Angeli Carla Tolentino (born 1988) is an American writer and editor. A staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' she previously worked as deputy editor of ''Jezebel'' and a contributing editor at ''The Hairpin''. Her writing has also appeared in ' ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' Aldama "rules the program with a fearsomely controlled demeanor interrupted by flickers of maternal warmth." Overall, the series highlights Aldama's perfectionism, encapsulated in her hallmark conviction concerning practice: "You keep going until you get it right, then you keep going until you can't get it wrong."

''Dancing with the Stars''

On September 2, 2020, it was announced that Aldama would be participating in the 29th season of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

''. She was partnered with

Val Chmerkovskiy Valentin Aleksandrovich "Val" Chmerkovskiy ( uk, Валентин Олександрович "Вал" Чмерковський; born March 24, 1986) is a Ukrainian-American professional dancer, best known for his appearances on the U.S. version ...

, and was eliminated on the 7th week, placing 10th.

References

External links

navarrocollege.edu/cheer/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldama, Monica 1972 births Living people University of Texas alumni McCombs School of Business alumni American television personalities Navarro College cheerleading American women television personalities