Coach Monica Aldama (Netflix's CHEER)

Coach Monica Aldama from Netflix's 'CHEER' checks in to talk season 2 and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's Mario A little bit, It's up. You're on Mario
Lopez joining me now on Zoom from the Netflix series
Cheer and also an author Monica. I'll welcome to the show.
Wanna got nice to see you again. Yes, nice to
see you. Thank you for having me. Very impressive trophy
case you've got behind you, right, Thank you, thank you.
That's a that's a lot of winning going on. Yeah,

(00:24):
try and a lot of practice, exactly. There's no shortcuts,
there will congrats. Cheer obviously has been a big hit
for Netflix, and I gotta imagine life is completely different
now since the show premiered, right, Oh yeah, I mean,
you know when it came out in season one came out,
it definitely what caught us mastaprise of how big it got,

(00:46):
and so it kind of we kind of went from
zero to a hundred really fast. But then the pandemic
happened and float us down back back down to zero. Um,
so we're you know, it's kind of exciting to have
that buzz again that um, you know, life is different
a little bit, but I'm also still in my hometown,
so it feels very normal when I'm you know, outside

(01:07):
of the through of everything right. Season two is officially out.
Now what journey are the Bulldogs on this time in
season two or like rock this minute? Well yet both okay,
well season two. If you haven't seen it yet, you

(01:28):
need to go check it out. It's definitely a roller
coaster of a season. It actually covers two years because
we did have our season canceled in twenty when the
pandemic happened, So it's you know, the first half is
our journey to our competition and then the sudden cancelation,
and then the second half is our journey just past

(01:50):
year in one. So um, a lot happened. It was
a little bit different than season one, but um, probably
very interesting to watch. And right now we're actually in
practice right now if I've taken a break and uh
while they're over there doing their things. I appreciate you
taking the time. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Do
you like the way you're portrayed on the show? Do

(02:12):
you think it's fair? Um? You know, um, that's a
great question. I think that uh that you know, with
the editing of the show, I definitely have had a
lot of criticism in season two, and I think some
of the takeaways, especially when I went to Dancing with
the Stars, you know, it seemed like I abandoned my team,

(02:35):
and um, you know, the fact of the matter is
we were in a very strange year for us because
all of our sports had been moved to the spring,
so we are normal fast paced fall that we normally
have was not actually gonna happen. So if I was
ever gonna leave for anything like this, it was actually.

(02:56):
Um not that there's ever a perfect time, but you know,
it was a semester where we were only becau sending.
We were very limited to what we could do because
we were still going through this COVID process. Um, so
I think, is it? I mean, you know, it's hard
to know because I know what's going through my mind

(03:16):
and they're showing different scenes. And it's really strange how
different people perceive me, because some people think that they
some people totally get me and they you know, they
send me messages and I'm like, Okay, that's exactly who
I am. But then I get these really wild ones
where people call me really ugly names and they say,
you know that I'm mean or this or that, when really, honestly,

(03:39):
as a coach, I don't really even yell, I'm very much.
I'm very serious. I have a thinking face, but a
lot of people may take that as you know, it's
I definitely have a resting bitch face. Okay, So I'm thinking,
and that's all I am doing, is literally thinking, sure
if I have you know, and they like to put
a lot of those shots in the show. But um,

(04:01):
there's a lot of love in our practice, and you know,
if I do need to talk to somebody, I usually
pulled them to the side and we have a very
respectful conversation. So to me, I'm like, oh, I feel
like I'm you know, very respectful as far as like
having these conversations with these kids were if I were
a man and a football coach, like, I don't think

(04:21):
there would be any kind of criticism at all. It's
very strange. I don't know. You, I'm sure you understand
just the perception people get and they're all so different.
You know, people always gonna have certain opinions regardless. I mean,
mother Teresa included, and doesn't matter. M you've you're you're
taking the team on the road for live shows, right,

(04:43):
So is it basically like a recital a concert? What
are people gonna expect. Okay, so it's not actually navero
cheer there's you know, I think a little bit of
confusion on that. So what we're doing is we're taking
some of the best athletes in the cheerleading industry on
a tour. Obviously, yes, some of those are in a
very college athletes. Some of those are Trinity Value athletes

(05:05):
that you also saw in the show, but we also
have athletes that have cheered at other universities and um,
you know that are just professional you know that are
really talented in the cheer world. So, um, the exciting
thing for me about this is that we're gonna have
the opportunity to actually go out on a stage and
entertain people with something that we absolutely love and are

(05:28):
passionate about without the restrictions of a score sheet or
the stress of competition, because honestly, those two things are
not really fun. Cheerleading is amazing and it is so fun,
but there comes a lot of stress and a lot
of pressure when you're competing, and the score sheet really
keeps you in a box because you're trying to get

(05:48):
maximize your points, and so you're trying to strategize and
and hit those points. But when you're talking about actually
doing what we love for entertainment. There's so many different
things that we can do, and we're hoping, you know,
you could see like Dancing with the Stars tour or
something like that. It's you know, start do slay. We're
hoping that people leave and they laughed, maybe even cried

(06:10):
or got emotional and they were just so entertained and
had so much fun. Um, that's what we're hoping to do,
is you know, have this platform for people in the
cheerleading industry to give them something to do, and then
for us to be able to entertain people who love
cheerleading just as much as we do. Awesome. Sounds like
a good time. Um. In your new book, A lot
on your plate, full out? What what inspired you to

(06:34):
write this one at this point? Well, you know, I
obviously with coaching, this is my I just finished my
twenty seventh years, so have lots of stories, lots of challenges,
lots of things I've learned, been coaching for twenty seven years. Yeah,
this is your When did you start when you're four?
Uh No, but I was very young. So I graduated

(06:55):
college a semester early and I moved to Dallas and
I was working at a company and um, friend of
mine was a baseball I never thought I would be
coaching cheerleading. Better friend of mine was the baseball coach here,
and he reached out to me and said, our cheerleading
coaches leaving and you should have applied for this job.
And I really didn't like where I was, so I
was like, why not. I'll just you know, that's I

(07:15):
grew up there. I could just go back and figure
out what I want to do with my life. I'll
just use it as a stepping stone. And obviously I'm competitive,
so it kind of pulled me in. And the better
we got, the better you know, I built a program,
the more you know, invested I got, and I just
couldn't see myself leaving. So yeah, so here I am.
I started very young with zero experience. Good for well they, um,

(07:39):
but yeah, so I just you know I have I've
always kind of joked around like, oh, that's I should
you know, put that in my back that story in
my back pocket for that book I'm gonna write one day.
And um. Then after the show came out in I
just had so many people reaching out to me, you know,
asking for advice, um, just based on, you know, the
success that I've had with and it was from really

(08:01):
all areas, from parenting to relationships, to coaching to business whatever,
and so I thought, you know, this is a great
time to actually truly wrote that book that I was
talking about. And then of course we went into a pandemic,
so I had the whole summer to work on it.
That's awesome. That's awesome. You know, it's funny because I
believe with the same age, and you have a daughter,

(08:22):
I think I read that's getting married this spring. Right, Yeah,
I started really late. Mine just turned eleven, so, um, yeah,
you haven't how old your kids? So my son is
twenty five and my daughter is She just turned twenty two.
She's in law school right now at s MU and
getting married in May. Oh look at that. Wow, congratulations

(08:42):
on that. Do you have a hand in the wedding planning?
Is she letting you get involved? Well? Okay, so my
sister in law retired last summer, thank god, because I
didn't realize it's a lot of work playing a wedding
and it's kind of a big wedding. So my sister
in law has been playing the whole thing. I gave
her my credit card and I was like, tell me
what I need to pay you can you got it?

(09:04):
So she's been great thankfully. Um you know, I don't
I try not to step on anybody's feet. Let my
daughter and her fiance decide everything. But it's gonna be
a lot of fun, awesome. Well, it seems like things
are going great professionally and uh and personally what about
the rest of two? Do you think there will be
a season three? Would you like to do one or
what would you like to get into? Um? Yeah, I

(09:27):
don't know about a season three right now. I'm just
trying to make it through this season two released. Um,
but yeah, I have lots of things. Like I said,
I'm still doing some press on my book because it
just came out a few weeks ago, and then my
daughter is getting married. We're in right in the middle
of Daytona season, so we are practicing a lot. Our
Our schedule is pretty uh full with that. We still

(09:48):
are cheering basketball, and then we're getting ready for this
um CO creating this live tour. So I have a
lot of weekend work where I'm actually working on content
and decision making that and we're gonna as soon as
we get done with finals here, then we will be
in rehearsals and then going out flying out to California
for our first leg of the tour. So I'll be

(10:09):
doing that all summer and then a school will start back.
So I'm looked up. Yeah you are? Are you? Are
you married? Monica? I am. I'm married to my high
school sweetheart. We congratulate. How's he? Uh? How do you
feel about all this all this attention? Um? You know,
my family is really my biggest support system. We're like,

(10:31):
like we hang out together all the time, like each
other's best friends. And UM, I know your daughter is
only eleven you just said, but it's so much fun
when they get a little bit older and truly, like
if they are you know, when when they come into town,
my daughter and her fiancee, Um, I mean we will
spend the weekend, you know, playing board game. It's like
game night, it's whatever. Like it's just so much fun

(10:53):
having them as truly, you know, your best friends, and um,
they're just the biggest of court systems that I have
and just enjoying this journey that that we've been on.
Good for you, good people, Congratulations on everything and you
can get full out anywhere you buy books. Monica, thanks
for checking in. Thank You with Mario Lopez