During Cheer season 2, viewers were introduced to several new faces, including Massachusetts native, Maddy Brum. Maddy committed to the Bulldogs cheer squad in February of 2019, while the team was busy filming season 1 of the now-famous series. The moment was actually captured by cameras and briefly featured in a B-roll series during an episode of the show. She became a part of the 2019-2020 Navarro freshman class. Then, the talented cheerleader began training with the squad for the 202o NCA National Championships in Daytona.
Maddy didn’t receive as much air time as some of her fellow Cheer castmates. Overall, a lot more time was spent on other stories, such as the disturbing allegations against former fan-favorite “stunter,” Jerry Harris, and the sudden departure of La’Darius Marshall. This left many fans disappointed, as they wanted to know more about Maddy from New England. Who is Maddy and what was the cheerleading journey that eventually brought her to Navarro?
Maddy hails from Dracut, Massachusetts, where she first began cheering in the Dracut Pop Warner cheer program at the age of 7. She then went on to train at East Celebrity Elite in Tewksbury before becoming a flyer for Dracut High School, where she won four state championships with her squad. Maddy shared during season 2 interviews that her home life growing up was troubled. “I don’t even know how many houses I’ve lived in my life,” she says in one such segment of the popular breakout Netflix series. Cheerleading became the one thing upon which she learned to depend. She added, “I don’t know where I’m sleeping tonight, but I know tomorrow at six o’clock, I’m going to cheerleading practice.“
Her high school cheer coach Scott Rigoli shared to local news sources that Maddy was always eager to learn new skills and show them off at practice. He recalled pushing the flyer to attempt maneuvers that challenged her strength and flexibility, nothing that she would always succeed. As per The Lowell Sun, “She literally was fearless. She would just go on the mat in front of the whole team and just do her skills. That’s how we knew that she was going to be something when she got older.”
While the show has helped make the sport of cheerleading a worldwide phenomenon, it was not as prominent in the world of athletics as it is in cheer-obsessed Corsicana, Texas, or other parts of the country. Maddy recognized early on that she would have to work harder than most people to be recognized in her sport. “If I didn’t keep pushing myself as a cheerleader, I probably would have never left Massachusetts,” the perfectionist remarked in episode three. Her former coach agreed, and told The Lowell Sun, “She’s one of those people that if she says she’s going to do it or if she dreams it and she really wants to do it, she’s going to make it happen.”
Maddy did return to Navarro for the 2021-2022 season. She also competes on a Cheer Athletics All-Star squad, the Wildcats, which is based in Texas as well. Fans are already speculating about Cheer season 3. The odds of a new season are good, and if it gets the green light, most fans hope that it will feature more of Maddy Brum.
Source: LowellSun.com