Samo Welcomes New Cheer Coach Lavel Butler

Manny Lopez / The Samohi

Lavel Butler cheered at West Hollywood High School when he was still in school. He decided to become a coach after 11 years of cheering, and he has been coaching for eight years since.

This cheer season brings a new head coach for the team: Lavel Butler. He did cheerleading back in highschool, where his team grappled to have good support. This inspired him to give back to schools and teams in similar situations.

“When I was in high school we weren’t that great and so I always wanted to excel in programs to make sure we could perform at the highest level,” Butler said.

Butler cheered for 11 years before deciding to become a coach. Previously, he has coached for All Star Cheer, a cheer company, and Pop Warner, as well as for many other schools. He also got the opportunity to be one of the cheerleaders in the cheering section in Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” music video. He spent 72 hours working long days, and even got to meet Swift. Butler describes how this experience helped his coaching.

“This was an amazing experience, definitely one for the books,” Butler said. “I learned a lot about professionalism and how to adjust to last minute changes, which taught me how to become a better coach.”

Butler’s coaching style has remained consistent from team to team. His core values are very central to him and his coaching. He loves the idea of progression and development as key factors in creating a strong team, he and incorporates his core values with a strict but fun approach, creating a hardworking and well connected environment.

“I describe my style as militant, definitely very detailed… [and I like to get to know my team first,]” Butler said. “[I want to make sure] that nobody is using their ego and everyone [is being] themselves authentically, no matter what [their] background is. You can take anybody off the street and make them a cheerleader, but somebody who wants to excel themselves is gonna make themselves a better cheerleader.”

Butler says he chose to coach at Samo because of the school spirit and his connections with previous coaches and cheerleaders. Seeing Samo at competitions drove him to apply when he saw an opening. He plans on building chemistry between the team and then taking that connection into competitions.

Butler has only been here for a couple weeks and has already seen growth throughout the team. He will strive towards his idea of progression during the rest of the season, and he hopes to bring the team back into competitions next year.

“I love seeing them progress and how they can go from 0-100,” Butler said.