Cheer rivals Navarro College and Trinity Valley Community College are in a league of their own — literally. When it comes to junior college cheerleading, there are no other teams in their division. That wasn’t always the case, though: When game-changing coach Monica Aldama first took the helm of Navarro’s team in 1995, there were more competitors. But with the implementation of more and more intermediate-level divisions, the Advanced Large Coed division shrunk. “We’re two of the best teams out there,” she told Slate in 2020. “It doesn’t matter that we’re in a junior college division. Nobody wants to compete against us.”

Although the competitive world of cheerleading has revolved around these two teams for decades now, Navarro cheer is reached new heights after being featured in Netflix’s first season of Cheer. But when Aldama came to Navarro, TVCC was a rival not to be taken lightly: They had already won four national titles, in 1989, ’90, ’91 and ’93. TVCC, by their own admission, was the team to beat, and it would take Aldama several years to catch up to what they’d built. So how did this heated rivalry start? And where does it go from here? Here’s a rundown on collegiate cheerleading’s biggest battle, Navarro versus TVCC.

1995: Monica Aldama joins Navarro.

Aldama didn’t set out to be a coach: When she started her job at Navarro, in January 1995, she thought it would be a “stepping stone” before moving to New York and working on Wall Street. As she told the blog Texas Exes, Navarro’s team was small and unestablished, and she “built” it from the ground up, even going so far as to visit the college’s weight room and recruit guys. “I didn’t inherit some great program,” she said. “It was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.” 

2000: Navarro wins nationals for the first time.

Under Aldama’s leadership, the Navarro Bulldogs placed second in 1998 and 1999. In 2000, they won nationals for the first time.

2009: Navarro wins nationals for the sixth time.

Between 2000 and 2009, Navarro and TVCC traded wins. Navarro won in 2003, ’04, ’06 and ’07; TVCC won in 2001, ’02, ’05 and ’08. But the Bulldogs’ 2009 win marked a milestone: From this year onward, they started a winning streak that wouldn’t end until 2016.

2012: Navarro becomes Grand National Champions.

For the first time ever, Navarro earned the Grand National Champion title — meaning that the team didn’t just beat others in their division, but every other school overall. Oh, and they also earned the highest score in NCA history. “That’s what we’ve been close to so many times before,” Aldama told the Corsicana Daily Sun. “I have never heard of a score that high.”

2016: TVCC breaks Navarro’s streak.

The TVCC Cardinals won their 10th title in 2016, breaking Navarro’s seven-year streak. They were also named grand champions. “We never go in with the idea of winning grand champion. We go in with the idea of winning our division,” coach Khris Franklin told the Athens Daily Review. 

2017: Vontae Johnson joins TVCC as a head coach.

Franklin hired former student Vontae Johnson to co-coach TVCC. Under Johnson’s leadership, TVCC won nationals in 2017 for the second year in a row.

2019: TVCC taps Navarro’s ex-choreographer.

All-star choreographer Brad Vaughan, who worked with Monica for 13 years, left Navarro for TVCC. Nonetheless, Navarro came out victorious this time.

2020: Nationals are canceled due to COVID-19.

As we saw in Cheer, the 2020 NCA National Championship was canceled for the first time in 40 years, thanks to COVID-19.

2021: TVCC wins at nationals.

As it stands, TVCC are the most recent champs: They beat Navarro by a slim 0.1584 points. But Navarro still has 14 wins to TVCC’s 12, so heading into this year’s nationals, the competition’s tighter than ever.

2022: TBD.

This April, both teams will hit the mat — and who wins next is anyone’s guess.