Junior Lauren Renard has been attending Van Nuys High School for three years and throughout her three years at our school, she’s been on the varsity cheer team. This year, she was awarded the CIF all-city Cheerleader of the Year award. Renard is passionate about keeping a smile not just on her face, but on the faces of everyone around her.
Outside of cheer, Renard is involved in varsity basketball and volleyball. It was at a basketball game when she got the news of her newest accomplishment.
“When I found out, I had just finished playing a basketball game, winning against San Fernando,” she said. “My mom asked me out of nowhere ‘guess who’s the Cheerleader of the Year?’ But I didn’t expect that person to be me. I was filled with surprise because I thought she was just joking but I’m extremely happy she wasn’t.”
This was a goal Renard had been pursuing since sophomore year and she was delighted her hard work finally paid off.
“I always had aimed for reaching the top,” she said. “I never knew I could get an award for this until I found out sophomore year and when I did, I wanted to push myself 10 times harder.”
Working hard is nothing new to Renard as it is something she has been doing since she was a kid.
“I started to cheer competitively freshman year, around three years ago, but I used to cheer in elementary school,” she said. “I learned a lot of basic fundamentals there.”
Inspired by her mom’s coaching she gained a firsthand look into the reality of cheer.
“My mom definitely sparked my interest when I was still a little kid,” she said. “Ever since she started to coach in 2009, she has always amazed me. But with her being my mom and my coach, a lot of hardships were involved.”
Despite this, the biggest challenge Renard has faced isn’t the relationship with her mother but the rigor of cheerleading practices.
“The biggest struggle I face is keeping my energy up during 6 a.m practices,” she said. “It’s especially hard during winter and summer breaks.”
Even with the hardships of cheer, she’s learned important life lessons.
“Don’t quit,” Renard said. “It feels really hard to keep going, once you feel like you’re going to quit that means to keep on pushing.”
Renard hopes to be a source of inspiration for others just like her mom was for her.
“I want to be someone that other people look up to,” she said. “I hope they see me in a good way.”
But cheer isn’t always bright smiles.
“A lot of people don’t know how hard I work behind the scenes as well, at home I always practice and help out with whatever I can,” Renard explained.
This drive and determination is something that propelled Renard and her team to winning the 2024-25 cheer championships. Their win was accompanied by a flood of intense emotions.
“My favorite memory was the first time we won championships during my sophomore year in Los Angeles,” she said. “We were all holding hands and crying while waiting for placements. When we got announced for first place, I just remember everybody jumping up into each other’s arms and celebrating.”
Winning these championships are only a stepping stone in Renard’s cheer career. The next stone being the winning of cheerleader of the year. In the future, Renard hopes to further her education in college but that doesn’t mean losing cheer.
“I hope to study psychology or law at University of California San Diego (UCSD),” she said. “I’m also really interested in their cheer team. I heard they are good as well.”
High school cheer has conditioned her to persevere even when things are hard and it is an attitude that she will adopt to any future endeavor whether it be senior year or college.
“Cheer isn’t easy, people see it as a sideline sport at games like football and basketball but the work behind the curtains will make you realize it is one of the hardest sports,” Renard said. “It is a very picky sport, you get scored for everything you do.”
