In Season 2 of Cheer, we see the pressures at Navarro mounting: The remaining members of the 2018-19 team are dealing with the pitfalls of fame, Coach Monica Aldama is coaching from afar while competing on Dancing with the Stars, and the arrest of their teammate Jerry Harris shakes the team to its core. While a storm of chaos rages through the now-notorious cheerleading squad in Corsicana, Texas, there’s calm just 37 miles away in the form of Vontae Johnson, the head coach of Trinity Valley Community College, who has been vying to snatch the college cheerleading crown since he became a coach in 2017. 

Spoiler alert: Navarro’s rivals, led by a cool-headed Johnson, cheer their way to victory this season in a powerful final performance. That’s not to say everything’s hunky-dory during the season. Johnson pushes the team hard, sometimes to the point of extreme exhaustion and vomiting. They’ve had a number of polarizing reactions to their appearance. Some criticize the team for unsportsmanlike conduct, while others believe their strong skills and determined work ethic should have made them a centerpiece of the season. But Johnson’s just staying focused on the job. 

“I just wanted to go and coach,” he tells Tudum. “That's all I did — I got up, I went to work, I was filmed, and I went home. Every day, I just wanted to make sure I gave the best I could to those athletes.”

You’ve probably been waiting to watch the season for a long time. What has the reaction been like at Trinity Valley?  

We did the show for the athletes. I wanted them to be able to have that same opportunity [as Navarro] to show the world how talented they are. They loved it. They love how well we're represented. They love that it shows how we are in practice. That's the real team — that's what you're going to get.

As a coach, I'm sure you're always working on improving and refining. Is there anything you saw while watching the season that you would change? 

As far as coaching, probably not. I do my best to try to reach every athlete. Not every athlete's going to get the same response or the same reactions for certain things. I try to treat them all as different human beings because they are. As a coach, I'm always evolving. I'm never just the same coach year to year. You learn from your mistakes. 

Season 2 tackles some of the homophobia around male cheerleaders head-on. For example, in Episode 2, Jeron jokes about having the “gay element” on a team. Some of Trinity Valley’s male tumblers really struggle with emoting, since they don’t want to be perceived as less “masculine.” But clearly, your coaching pays off during the finals, when tumbler Dee Joseph — who was struggling the most with this — got into his performance, and Trinity Valley ultimately triumphed. What advice would you give to anyone who’s struggling with those perceptions in cheerleading?  

It doesn't matter who you are, who you love or what you do; just be comfortable with yourself, and if you can express yourself, that's all that matters. It's 2 minutes and 15 seconds on the cheer mat. You can go out there and be comfortable doing that for 2 minutes and 15 seconds. So be comfortable with yourself; be comfortable with who you are as a person, and that's all that matters. And who cares about anybody else's opinion of yourself? Only what you think about yourself is what matters. 

There's been some negativity online about TVCC’s sportsmanship. How do you respond to the criticism?

They have to understand it's a show and it is going to be edited. They show the intensity. We're a college team, and these are college athletes. So, what you saw in practice is what practice is like. They don't go out in public and disrespect anyone. It's just a show and they need to understand that, but we handle it the best way we can. We don't focus on anybody else. We focus on what we can do to make ourselves better.

You have one side of the world that doesn't like you and the other side that loves you, but that comes with it. You can't go into a show that was started by one team and expect the world to love you and only you. We know we're good people. It's not our goal to make them like us. If they came and saw us, they'd understand.

What do you want viewers to know about your team that wasn't able to make the final cut?

We’re a hardworking team and, no matter what, our goal is obviously to send the athletes to a four-year school to graduate and be successful in life. Winning championships is awesome and we would like to win but, most importantly, we want the athletes to have a degree to be able to rely on when they're done.

Athletes like Jada and Jeron have moved on to other colleges. Are you all still in touch?

Oh, yes. I talk to Jada every day. Recently, we've spoken a lot because, obviously, [with the show] it's a lot for her to have to deal with as well. When I'm in Louisville, I'll make sure to check in on Jeron. If I'm in Huntsville, I'll make sure to check in on not just Jada, but all the other kids that are at Sam Houston [State University] as well. As coaches, I think we do our best to be able to reach out to them, at the same time giving them space to be able to grow as adults as well. 

How’s prep for Daytona 2022 looking? 

We have mat tryouts this week, and they’re super tough. We are, if not just as talented, more talented than last year's team. Some of those guys that were featured on the show might not make the mat this semester because we brought in such talented individuals. But we’re not here to pick favorites; we're here to make Trinity Valley successful. 

I do have to ask: Is there a new tape ball?

So, you learn from the show that once you win, you retire that tape ball.

So there is. 

We gotta restart!

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.