When the CIF championship results were announced, Skylie Molina was still on the competition floor. Four years of early mornings and year-round practice had come down to a single routine, and the Van Nuys cheer team nailed it.
A 2024 graduate, Molina had wanted to cheer since childhood but didn’t get the chance until high school. She joined the prep team as a freshman, worked her way to varsity, and helped lead the team to its CIF championship as a senior captain. She now cheers at Davidson College in North Carolina on a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship.
Molina said she wanted to cheer since elementary school, but none of her previous schools had programs.
“In high school, when I saw that Van Nuys had a cheer team, I took the opportunity to try out within the first month of freshman year and joined the Prep team,” she said.
Molina made the team, then she saw the calendar.
The schedule was more demanding than she expected. Cheer runs year-round: football sideline duties in the fall, competition choreography starting in September or October and no real off-season.
As a freshman on the prep team, Molina competed as a main base and helped the squad place third at a World Class Cheer competition.
She moved to varsity as a sophomore with a new stunting position, and by junior year the team was competing for titles.
The team won the War of the Roses competition in Molina’s junior year but fell short at CIF.
“We had a routine that could have won but due to various factors, was not executed the way we envisioned,” she said.
This would give the team a glimpse of what was to come, with a goal-driven and successful senior year in store.
“My senior year was bittersweet,” Molina said. “It never really hit me that I was going to go to my last cheer camp at Great Wolf Lodge, cheer on the football field for the last time and just a lot of last first times in the season.”
Molina said her goal since freshman year had been to win a CIF championship ring.
“I was overwhelmed with joy,” Molina said. “While cheering my heart out, I took a moment to observe my surroundings and appreciate the people around me, knowing that it would be my last time and opportunity to cheer with them in the hopes of winning the CIF ring. That moment was honestly one of the best, knowing that our hard work and my four years of dreaming became a reality.”
Coach Maria Renard, in particular, acknowledged the growth Molina underwent as a result of chasing this dream.
“I think Skylie’s grown and learned a lot,” Coach Renard said. “Since Skylie was in cheer for all four years, she had grown so much and learned so much so you just have to work with another student to make them grow just like Skylie did.”
Her teammates saw it too.
“Cheering with Skylie felt amazing, she was a role model on the mat and off mat,” senior cheerleader Pily Gonzalez said. “She is a very positive person, helping out underclassmen when it comes to big competitions. Seeing her win a ring, and especially winning this big title for cheerleading, felt so heartfelt to me because she worked so hard as an athlete and a person.”
Molina credited Coach Renard with holding the program together.
“She was always there for the team and hoped to make the program successful again,” she said.
Molina said she wasn’t ready to stop cheering after she graduated.
Through the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Young Scholars Program, Molina toured colleges the spring of her junior year. Davidson, a Division I school in North Carolina, had both the academics and cheer program she wanted.
“Ever since then, Davidson was the only name that was in my head,” she said.
Adjusting to the intensity of college cheer has been Molina’s biggest challenge.
“The biggest challenge was learning what Gameday meant for me as an athlete and just adjusting to the new style of competition,” she said.
But from time to time, she reflects on what she would tell her freshman self.
“If I could go back to my high school freshman year self, I would tell myself to cherish every moment on that mat,” Molina said. “I would say to take in the atmosphere during every game. Remember the way you felt during every practice and every competition. That feeling will never be the same, so appreciate every moment. The community you build on a team is irreplaceable, and I would never trade my friendships and time on the VNHS Cheer Team for the world.”
This article originally appeared in the Early Spring 2026 print edition.
