“Better than yesterday” served as this year’s motto for the North Carolina A&T State University cheer team, which secured its second consecutive national title in April.
In 2024, the Aggie cheerleading team became the first team from a historically Black college or university to win the National Cheerleaders Association’s college national championship in the Intermediate Small Coed Division I, and the squad successfully defended its title during this year’s competition in Daytona, Florida.
North Carolina A&T senior Kennedi Stevens, who has spent three years on the team, and Tanasia Lemon, who has been on the team for four years, served as team captains this season. Stevens said winning the championship a second time was a joyous, surreal moment.
“In that moment I didn’t have any words, I broke out into a little prayer,” Stevens said. “My first instinct was to just thank God that he got us through and that he made a way for us to not only bring the win but to represent for those who look like us and the little girls who also want to be in our shoes when the time comes for them.”
Cheerleading coach Daniel Kearns-Pickett said faith has become a pillar for the team.
“I am a praying man. My faith and praying bleeds through my program,” Kearns-Pickett said. “We pray at the beginning, middle and end of everything and keep God at the front of everything we do.”
On the first day of this year’s championship, the team struggled, placing second. But heading into Day 2, the cheerleaders came together and encouraged one another to perform the routine cleanly.
“We knew Day 1 we didn’t have our best performance, and Coach was like, ‘Better than yesterday – as long as you do better than yesterday, I’m going to be proud of you regardless,’” Lemon said. “We took that motto and we stood on it.”
According to Kearns-Pickett, the team’s motto underscores everything it does.
“Physically, emotionally, academically, we strive to be better than yesterday, and that means to us we know that every day is not going to be perfect,” he said. “We know we are going to have hardships, days of frustration. We use the quote to remind ourselves that hey, it’s OK, this is life.”
The team has been competing at the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) championship for the past three years, but it wasn’t until this year that the cheerleaders achieved zero deductions, meaning they had a perfect routine. The team scored 95.0093 points, putting them over 16-time national champion Stephen F. Austin State University, which finished with 94.3611.
“Coming off the mat, when we hit zero [deductions], we knew in that moment that it [the title] was ours,” Lemon said.
Coming into the season, the team participated in an NCA College Camp, winning an award for being the most spirited and placing first in the rally routine category.
“We knew everybody was going to be coming for us,” Stevens said. “It was a lot of pressure. We knew that we were going to have to rise to the occasion and put on a routine that was going to max out well but also that was going to be different from anything you’ve ever seen in our division.”
Following last year’s victory, the Aggies practiced their routine a lot earlier in the season compared with previous years. Practices consisted of warmups, two full routines and skills cleanup. The team also prayed twice daily, at the beginning and toward the end of practice.
Lemon said she has watched the level of competition – and the team’s members – evolve over time.
“I’ve been on the team with four different groups. … Going into my second year, we went to NCA and a lot of us didn’t know what to expect. We ended up falling short by less than a point,” Lemon said.
That moment fueled the team’s motivation, she said.
“We changed divisions my junior year because we had boys on the team now, and we went out there and we came out on top,” Lemon said. “We didn’t want to be a one-hit wonder, so coming back in [this year], stunts got harder, we focused on tumbling more and everyone had to give their all for us to win again.”
Lemon and Stevens offered words of encouragement to young girls watching them.
“You should never let people tell you what you can and can’t do,” Lemon said. “You can do anything you put your mind to, you just have to put the work in.”
Stevens stressed the importance of staying true to yourself.
“Follow your heart and follow your dreams because you never know where God is leading you,” she said.
