Sunnyside High senior cheers on after serious injury

Cheerleading, which she had taken up when she was 8 years old, was everything to her. And the possibility of not being able to do it again because of her injury sent her into a depression.

“I cried most of the time,” she said.

But after months of heartache, tears and support from her family, friends and teachers, Rivera stood back up again and returned to her squad, the Sunnyside High School Blue Devils.

And now, she is getting a cheer scholarship from Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher and will be heading there in July to start her college life

“I didn’t think anyone would give me a chance,” she said. But someone did, and she will soon be a college student in a new place.

Rivera is a flyer for the cheer squad, which means she is the one being thrown into the air. She loves being a flyer, but doing what she loves is what ended up causing her a lot of pain.

The injury happened in October 2015 during practice when she was coming down from a stunt, she and her squad mates said.

Marcy Esquer, a junior on the team, said she was a few feet away from Rivera, when she heard Rivera fall and saw her on the ground.

“We were all just scared for her,” she said.

And it was a tremendous relief when Rivera recovered and returned to the squad, Esquer said.

“It kind of sucks when you plan out your whole life and something you love hurts you,” Rivera said.

Her mother, Josephina Tacho, said she tried to stop Rivera from going back to cheering, but there was no stopping her.

“It’s very tough when you have a child who’s hurt and they want to go do it again,” Tacho said. “It kills me.”

It was her desire to return to cheer that helped her pull through, Rivera said. “I kept telling myself, ‘I need to get better,’ ‘I need to cheer.’”

Now with the prospect of leaving her home to head to college, Rivera is looking forward to the future. Her mother is too, but she’s also worried.

As Tacho watched her daughter and her squad dance to a version of The White Stripe’s “Seven Nation Army” on a recent Thursday, she wiped away her tears. “She’s a tough cookie,” she said. “I’m so proud of her.”

Allison Araque, a freshman who Rivera said is her best friend on the squad, also said, “I’m crying because she’s leaving me.”

Bonnie Baron, her cheer coach who has seen her through the four years she’s cheered at Sunnyside High, said of Rivera, “She’s very enthusiastic. She’s a great dancer, cheerleader and hard worker.”

The 18-year-old cheerleader will study criminal justice at Eastern Arizona. She eventually wants to be a lawyer or a judge. “I love to argue. I love to prove a point.”