What we don’t know is, that just how expansive the art of cheerleading is. It’s not just doing some moves and shouting a chorus of lines at the same time. This is just the tip of the ice. In reality, it’s much more than that.
Cheerleading involves auditions, rigorous training in synchronized movements, traveling to stadiums, and then performing in front of thousands under a set of glaring floodlights and in the din of deafening noise. It’s very much demanding and pretty much brutal, just like any other physical activity is.
Luckily for us people, Netflix which is a worldwide streaming platform, recently released a documentary series by the name of ‘Cheer’. In it, they showcased all the going ins and outs of the cheerleading world. They followed around top junior college programs that practice cheerleading and will soon be participating in the annual championships taking place in Florida.
Surprisingly the series ‘Cheer’ was received well by Netflix’s subscribers. According to IMDb, its score is 8.1/10 and is at 94% on the rotten tomatoes website.
Which now brings us to the next question; What makes the series ‘Cheer’ popular among the viewers? The answer to this is obvious.
Aside from the drama and rivalry involved in it, it has to do more with Choreographers who are responsible for training the freshmen. One, in particular, stood out: Brad Vaughan.
Who is Brad Vaughan? What things he did that spiked up the show’s popularity? The following paragraph aims to cover this.
Brad Vaughan Early Life
By profession, Brad is a cheer choreographer and has been choreographing students of various colleges for a very long time. When season 1 of Cheer was aired, he was coaching students from Navarro college, alongside head coach Monica Aldama.
In the finale of season 1 of Cheer, things got troubling for Navarro College when one of its cheerleaders, Austin Bayless sustained an ankle injury. Despite this, they were given a second chance to perform which they didn’t forgo. The routine was executed but this time with another cheerleader; Alex Bouhuys.
Much to the surprise of people, Navarro college actually won, against the cheerleading team of Trinity Valley. They bagged the fifth Grand National Championship title.
You would think that by winning the title, the team would actually stick together. Except it didn’t.
Assistant Coach Andy Cosferent left, mainly because he wanted to work on other business ventures. His reasons were understandable.
But when Brad Vaughan resigned from Navarro College as a choreographer, everyone went into shock. Why would Brad leave after Navarro college won the competition? It just wasn’t adding up.
The Split of Brad Vaughan from Navarro
Brad Vaughan didn’t disclose his reasons why he left Navarro for good. But it hadn’t stopped viewers from speculating it. The opinions and theories were shared and posted on Reddit, another social media platform where shows and sitcoms are discussed.
One said that Brad Vaughan left Navarro because he and the head coach Monica Aldama weren’t on the same page. Brad might have wanted to change the dance routine of the freshmen.
Meanwhile, Monica was adamant that they should stick to usual, with a few adjustments; Why bring the changes when the old format helped us win. It would indeed be a risky move to implement it, according to Aldama.
Most people said that TVCC probably offered Brad a lucrative salary with perks and benefits. It’s only natural that when someone offers you a great deal, you would take it without any hesitation. It would be stupid not to.
Others said maybe Brad Vaughan was not getting enough fame like others were getting. This theory was backed up by several Reddit users. They pointed out that cheerleaders and coaches were getting appreciation for all the hard work they did. What about choreographers? Where do they stand? Don’t their contributions count?
There is evidence to the aforementioned observation. Viewers pointed out that Brad Vaughan got very little screen time in season 1.
Some people didn’t lean too much into this. They think Brad Vaughan left simply because he wanted a change of environment. Nothing more, nothing less.
Brad Vaughan Career
Aside from training the potential cheerleaders from TVCC, Brad co-owns a gym with his business partner Brett Hansen. The gym is called ‘Spirit of Texas’. The gym too also specializes in the field of cheerleading. So people who aren’t affiliated with colleges but still want to take up cheerleading, this gym is for them.
Personal life of Brad Vaughan
Brad Vaughan is in a relationship with Garrett Arzate. Garrett works as a design coordinator at Varsity all-star at the moment. He studied from Texas state university, where he majored in communications.
Despite not married, they couple has been going out together for 9 years. They recently celebrated their anniversary in January 2022. They both own a lot of pets and love to travel around frequently.
From the above paragraphs, it’s obvious enough that Brad Vaughan is pretty much content with his life. And while the viewers are happy to see this, they still couldn’t help voicing this out that Navarro shouldn’t have let go of Brad Vaughan that easily, because he was a valuable asset when it came to teaching the art of cheerleading.
