Naveah Conrad, junior, is Sahuaro’s cheer team’s captain. She has been cheering since she was 4 or 5 years old. Veah was not interested in trying any sports at the time, so her mom made her. Her sister also did cheer, and after a while, Naveah ended up falling in love with the sport, and never looked back. Her first cheer team was the Wildcats, and she played there until she was 13 or 14, when she moved on to high school cheer at Sahuaro. Her favorite part of cheer is stunting because she ended up bonding with all of the people in her stunt group, and it is all experimental. She got to try new things, and learn what does and doesn’t work.

Two days before competition, in a stunt incident, she sprained her shoulder and severely bruised her forearm. But, she didn’t let that stop her, she still cheered in the state competition.  Although she had to be taken out of two of the stunts, she tried her very best on all of the parts she could. Her favorite memory from all her years of cheering was this year’s state competition. “So this year I really enjoy all the girls on my team and it’s super fun. It was just a good bonding moment.” During her freshman year, her bond wasn’t as strong with the rest of the girls, and last year there was no competition due to COVID precautions. One of her main inspirations her freshman year was trying not to disappoint the older girls.  Now she carries that into her leadership position and being that older figure for her younger teammates.

“What made me be captain, I think, it’s just my love for cheer, and I know I could be a pretty good example of what to do, and I could just teach the girls what to do because I have a pretty good knowledge of cheer.” At first, it was hard for her because she did not know when she was pushing the girls too hard or not hard enough. She soon realized that what she was doing was good, and she knew exactly how to get the team pumped up. “I think my hard work did definitely pay off… just showing up all the time, giving my 110, and just practicing everything.”

She mostly sticks to school, cheer, and her job at Sauce. Naveah really enjoys chemistry and wants to study astronomy in college. She is unsure if she wants to cheer in college because she would need to improve her tumbling, but she is thinking about taking some classes to improve it or possibly becoming a cheer coach in the future.