LU Moment: Megan Thompson talks competitive cheer, Cardinal spirit | S8 Ep. 26
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Podcast: S8 Ep. 26
Date: September 16, 2025
Title: LU Moment: Megan Thompson talks competitive cheer, Cardinal spirit | S8 Ep. 26
Host: John Rollins
JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the LU Moment, where we showcase all the great things happening with Βι¶ΉΣ³» faculty, staff, students, and alumni. I'm John Rollins, associate director of community relations and public affairs here at LU, and I want to welcome you all to this week’s show. When you think about the world of competitive sports, cheerleading might not always be the first thing that comes to mind. But this sport requires just as much discipline, skill, athleticism, and heart as any other team. Here today to talk with us about the Βι¶ΉΣ³» Cheer Team is cheer coordinator Megan Thompson. Megan, welcome to the show, and thank you for joining me today on the podcast.
MEGAN THOMPSON: Thanks for having me. I'm excited.
JOHN: Megan, can you tell us a little bit more about the Βι¶ΉΣ³» Cheer Team? From what I understand, you’re one of the only co-ed sports teams here on campus. I also noticed on your website that members must be full-time students with at least a 2.0 GPA to try out. So, tell us more about the team.
MEGAN: We’re a team of 30 athletes who really love the sport. Most of our members are local, but we also have students from as far away as Louisiana. We’re a competitive cheer team that competes at the NCAA College Nationals. We’re in the Division I category, which is a super competitive division, and this will be our third year going to that competition.
JOHN: You said there's about 30 members on the team?
MEGAN: Yes, we have 30 this year. It’s gone up by about five people every year since I’ve been here. I started with 17 my first year, then we went to 20. Then it was 25 halfway through that year, and now we’re at 30.
JOHN: It’s growing. That’s fantastic. So, do you have a number where you’ll have to cap it?
MEGAN: I probably wouldn’t go over 35 by myself.
JOHN: Thirty-five—okay, awesome. Yeah, and I think I remember we helped get you all on the news earlier this year for a segment after that big win. I believe you mentioned then that the number of individuals trying out each year is growing.
MEGAN: We currently have about five to 10 individuals wanting to try out for our spring semester. Before, it was almost like we were trying to pull people in off the street, like, “Hey, come on, join our team. It’s going to be fun. We go to Florida. It’s a great time.” And now, we’re having to turn people away—which is a great problem to have. The program itself has been doing so well, and our main goal at LUCT is to make people fall back in love with cheer. I think because that has been our initiative, it’s drawing in those people who may have lost their love for the sport and want to find it again. So, we are slowly growing year by year.
JOHN: Love that. Do you find that a lot of the individuals who try out were part of cheer teams in high school or middle school?
MEGAN: Normally, we have cheerleaders who have done it in some capacity before. I would say probably 75% of our team cheered in high school. There’s about a 25% ratio of those who maybe cheered for a year and didn’t like the drama of it all, or just didn’t enjoy it in general—high school cheer is different. Then we have others who did competitive cheer most of their lives but never really wanted to do school cheer. We have a bunch of those as well. Competitive cheer and school cheer are two completely separate sections of cheerleading.
JOHN: Nice little mix, though, for sure. Before we move on, I’d love for you to introduce yourself so we can hear more about you. But first, I need to ask—where did your love for cheer start? Was it a middle school, high school thing, or somewhere else?
MEGAN: So, my name is Megan Thompson. I am a cheer coach and also a LUCT alumna. I’ve been pretty much on campus since I got here in 2016 and graduated in the middle of COVID, so I didn’t get my full years as a cheerleader. When I came back, the team was kind of struggling to hold itself together, and me coming back was just as a concerned alumni wanting to see the program flourish again. I got the amazing opportunity to take it over. It all stems from the little three-year-old girl who started competitive cheer over at Cheer FX in Port Arthur. This is my 24th year being involved in cheerleading. I did competitive cheer for as long as they would let me. Honestly, I went straight from competitive cheer and tried out at Lamar halfway through the first semester because I thought I was done with it. Boy, was I wrong! I ended up falling back in love with it in college, which became the reason I run the program the way that I do. Falling back in love with the sport I found was way more enjoyable and way more rewarding—to find a love for it all over again. It’s almost like that three-year-old self came back out when I got to college. That was super cool. Now, being a coach, it’s amazing to be able to provide that experience for athletes. You can really see when they give into the program and truly buy in—when they go to team bondings, get to know their teammates, and fall back in love with the sport. It’s one of the most rewarding things you can go through.
JOHN: So that’s pretty full circle for you. You were in their shoes—I didn’t realize you were a Βι¶ΉΣ³» cheer team alumna, and now you’re leading the team.
MEGAN: That’s right. 2016 was my first year on the team. My 2020–2021 year was my captain year—that was kind of a bonus year. I took some prerequisites for PT school. I loved physical therapy, but not so much being in the field. I think I always knew that I wanted to be a coach. As most people know, coaches don’t pay that well, so finding the love and being able to do this full time has been amazing. My dad always tells me, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.” And I truly, truly feel that way. I am so blessed to be able to do what I love every day and call it work.
JOHN: So, let’s go ahead and talk about this. This was very exciting earlier this year, and you kind of hinted at it before. You all earned a third-place finish at the 2025 National Cheerleaders Association College Nationals in Daytona Beach, Florida. This was your second year competing. I believe you got fourth place last year, which is amazing for a first year. But then you went back and cracked a spot in the winner’s circle—the top three. Tell us about that. I see you kind of doing a little cheer over there in your seat, but this is fantastic for Lamar.
MEGAN: So, a fun little nugget about how that went is when we first sat down to coordinate this routine and put it together, the very first time we ran what we called our “wow moment,” I got chills. The assistant coach helping me at the time, Mallory, got chills. My team was like, “Was it good?” They watched it back—chills. Everyone who I showed the video to was like, “Oh, this is different. This is good.” So going into the year, having put the routine together, we knew it was going to be something special. A little nugget: we went to Universal before the trip ever happened. There was this random fountain that I have now deemed magical. We were sitting out after riding a ride, and I was there with most of my leadership team. I picked up a quarter and said, “You know what? This is to win, to get in the winner’s circle for NCAA College Nationals.” We happened to get it on video because we were just joking around, flipping the coin. I think about that moment often because being in the winner’s circle is truly an accomplishment on its own. The winner’s circle means you’re top three in the nation in your division. It’s nothing to be taken lightly. For it to have been our second year ever at that competition—people didn’t even know our name! I mean, we’re a D1 school, but we hadn’t been competing at this competition for long. Going in and taking a spot in the winner’s circle is huge. Another fun nugget: every team that we passed on day two of finals had beaten us the year before. There were two new teams in our division that ended up taking first and second. But every team that beat us in our first year, we came back and outscored them, passing them in the second year. Our goal is to keep doing that. Truthfully, falling in love with the program and the athletes in general—they’re so hungry and they want it. Being a part of that winner’s circle just lit a fire. We’re already getting ready for 2026—we’ve started the routine, started brainstorming themes, and are looking for that wow moment. We’re just so excited. Last year, we’re still not over it. That medal goes with us everywhere. That trophy stays in my office. Any chance we get to take it out, we do. We are so proud of it. Truthfully, the athletes have a lot to be proud of too. On day one, we were tied for fourth, so technically fifth. Then they came back and pulled ahead of two teams. It took absolutely everything in them. They fought for every single point on that score sheet. If there was a problem to be fixed from day one, they fixed it. They gave it everything they had. It was a good feeling—you could tell they wanted to be there, and it showed on the mat. I think the judges saw that too. I’m super proud of them. They have everything to be proud of for 2025.
JOHN: That’s huge for Βι¶ΉΣ³», especially for the individuals on this team. Like you said, maybe people didn’t know the Lamar name, but it sounds like they’re about to—if y’all keep going back and making these awesome accomplishments while you’re there. And keep flipping that coin—I guess that’ll be a tradition now, every year.
MEGAN: Oh, yeah, I now have to do it. It will have to be a thing—it’s one of those things I’ll have to do each year. And tying back to them not knowing our name, I think it’s so important for our current team to know how many Βι¶ΉΣ³» cheerleaders came before them who wanted the moment they had on the mat. We’ve been fighting to compete since 2015, and we finally got the yes two years ago. I don’t let my team go without knowing that. When they step onto the mat, they know who they’re fighting for. They know there were LUCT members who came before them who wanted what they have. They truly go out there, and you can tell—they’re fighting for every single member who came before them. That, I think, is what has lit the fire these past few years.
JOHN: I love that you share that with them, too. And, you know, who better to do that than one of our own alumni? You’ve been in those shoes—you would have loved it. Well, you are there at Daytona, but it’s different. Love to be on the other end as well. So let me ask you this, because you’ve got my brain turning now. With all the newfound momentum going on with Lamar Athletics—y’all are at the football games, at the basketball games, probably other games I’m not thinking of right now—has that kind of increased the excitement for the cheer team as well? With all this momentum, like taking home the Commissioner's Cup two years in a row, athletics doing amazing across the board, and y’all being a part of it, driving fan engagement and bringing the spirit—has that enhanced your experience, too?
MEGAN: Oh, yeah, I think Lamar has a lot to offer. What’s really cool is how all the different athletic departments, and really all the departments and student organizations, are coming together and saying, “Hey, it’s our turn.” Yes, like it’s our turn. It’s time for us to show out. It’s time for people to know who Lamar is. Stop pushing us aside. We’re here, we’re strong, and we’re ready to show out and let you know who we are. It’s been super cool to watch. Obviously, I’ve been around for a long time—being a local, being part of the team for so long, and now coaching it—you can see the difference. I truly think Lamar is on the rise.
JOHN: I agree. Like you said, you can feel it—it’s like this shift is happening before us, and we’re all part of this momentum shift that’s happening for the better at Βι¶ΉΣ³». That’s wonderful, and I’m glad we have y’all leading the way. I also know y’all are very involved in the community. Last week, we did a literacy event at a local elementary school. There were probably 20 cheerleaders there. I had a last-minute request, and I asked, “Could y’all do a quick cheer?” because Fletcher Elementary’s cheerleaders had performed. And they did—they hopped up there, did a little cheer, and became part of the event. Is that something you encourage your students to do as well, like, “Let’s be an active part of the community”?
MEGAN: Yeah, absolutely. I think just seeing how kids react when a cheerleader walks into the room is enough to push us to do more community events. But what really drives us is that one kid at a community event. You go to the elementary school, meet them—they’re super excited, take a picture—and then you see them at your game on Saturday night. You know you made an impact on that kid, and I think those impacts are what keep us going. As a cheerleader, we’re obviously in the public eye a lot, but it’s one thing to be in the public eye for adults. It’s another to be a role model for kids, for the future of our generation. We have so much talent in our backyard—there’s so much talent in Southeast Texas. If we can root this positive program, make Βι¶ΉΣ³» cheer something people remember from their childhood, I think we can start bringing that talent here instead of losing it to schools four hours away. Come to us—we have just as much to prove, just as good of a program as you’d get four hours away, and we’re right here in your backyard. We’re really trying to make an appearance at our local schools and every local event we can get to. One, because we love our community and want people to be involved and know LU; and two, because there’s so much to offer here, and we want people to see that.
JOHN: There is, and you bring up a good point—that stigma of “we’re the hometown university, let’s move off to bigger and better.” I feel like things are changing on that front as well. Something I want to bring up: last year during football season, I remember a little girl—she must have been five, six, or seven years old. She was cheering along with y’all, right at the bottom of the stands in the stadium, mimicking exactly what the cheerleaders were doing. I thought that was so cool, because I was like, she’s going to tell her parents she wants to come to all of these football games, and she may end up being on the team in 10 years or however long. That really ties into your point—we’ve got to start local and instill that love of all things LU, and y’all are doing a great job with that. So, how can people keep up with the LU Cheer Team online? Social media, or if they’re listening to this podcast and say, “Hey, I want to join the cheer team,” how can they do that?
MEGAN: So for those interested in joining the cheer team, like we mentioned before, yes—you have to be a full-time student at Βι¶ΉΣ³». There’s one exception: if you’re an LIT student and want to attend, you would need to be enrolled in at least nine hours at Lamar. That covers the paperwork side of things. If you want to be considered for our spring semester, you can always send videos to cheer@lamar.edu—that’s our team email. It’s the best way to reach us with any questions, concerns, or for future recruits who want to be considered. We also have an Instagram account: lamar_cheer (I believe). That’s primarily where we post all our information—clinic updates, appearances, performances, and events. One big spring event we host is called the Cardinal Classic. This is where we bring in local schools—high schools, elementary schools, even local dance academies—to perform what they’ve been working on all year. It’s also a showcase for what we do at Nationals, and it’s usually the first time we perform our routine in front of a crowd, normally the week before we leave for Nationals.
Last year was amazing—we had the best time bringing in local schools and really tying in the community with what we have here at Lamar. It’s a super cool event, and we hope to grow it even further. Definitely stay in touch through our Instagram for updates like this!
JOHN: Fantastic. Megan, thanks again for joining me on the podcast and for spreading that school spirit here at LU and for all that you do on our campus.
MEGAN: Yeah. Peck ‘em.
JOHN: That’s right. Go Cards. As we wrap up another episode, please make sure to search LU Moment wherever you get your podcasts to keep up with the events, activities, programs, and people right here at Βι¶ΉΣ³». This is John Rollins, your host. Thank you for listening, and we’ll talk to you next time.