Audrina Reyes Signs with Texas A&M-San Antonio Cheer Squad

Roma, Texas does not generate institutional firsts very often. That changed when Roma High School Class of 2026 senior Audrina Reyes committed to compete on the Texas A&M University-San Antonio Jaguar Cheer Squad, becoming the first Gladiator cheerleader in the school's history to earn a collegiate cheer placement. The Rio Grande Valley has long sent its athletes, educators, and professionals into the world beyond Starr County. This particular milestone, modest by national metrics, carries real weight for a school community that tracks its own history carefully.

Roma ISD announced the signing through its official channels to swift and substantial community response. More than 5,200 people engaged with the post within the first day. That reaction speaks less to novelty and more to how personally communities this size receive news about their own.

If you want to understand who Audrina Reyes is before she ever sets foot on a TAMUSA court, start with her cheer bag. Red, covered in bling and glitter, her name and her gym name, Legendary, printed across it. Mini cheer bows, good luck pins gifted to her by fellow cheerleaders and aspirants for luck, keychains. And tucked inside, a specific prayer on paper, a prayer bow, and every single one of those good luck pins as must-haves. "My cheer bag looks like someone could go in there and come out with glitter all over," she said. That bag is not an accident. It is a whole personality.

What most people watching from the bleachers do not understand is what it actually takes to fill one of those bags with meaning. Reyes is clear on this. Cheerleading, she explains, demands a level of physical and mental discipline that does not get nearly enough credit. Practices are grueling. Soreness is constant. And the trust required between teammates, particularly when a flyer goes up into the air and relies entirely on her bases to catch her, is unlike anything built in a standard team sport. "Despite constant soreness and days with little energy, the dedication never fades," she said. For Reyes, cheerleading was never just sideline decoration. It was the whole thing.

Reyes nearly lost her composure at the signing. She held it together. Barely. "I almost did cry when my mom said her speech," she said. "She has always been my number one supporter through everything." Her mother, Emmy Pilon, told the crowd the achievement was secondary to watching her daughter fully inhabit something she had chosen with her whole self. Hearing that out loud, in front of everyone who watched her grow up, was almost too much.

Texas A&M University-San Antonio is a young institution by any measure. Founded in 2009 as the first Texas A&M System campus built in a major urban center, TAMUSA now enrolls more than 7,300 students and competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics under the Red River Athletic Conference. Its athletic program did not exist until 2020. Men's and women's basketball only joined the roster in the 2024-25 academic year. The Jaguar Cheer program performs at university athletic events and competes at the collegiate level. Reyes will step into a program still writing its own story, which makes her timing either very fortunate or very deliberate.

She already knows what she is buying first when she gets there. A TAMUSA shirt, worn back home in Roma, where everyone will see it. For her, the commitment lives in that. What scares her, though, is something no amount of Jaguar merchandise fixes. "One thing about college that scares me most is not making friends and going through college alone," she said. From someone who just made school history, that is the most human thing she could have offered.

The social anxiety is only part of it. Reyes is acutely aware of what independence actually costs. "In high school, you go by an eight-hour school day, come home for dinner that mom made, go to practice, and come back home to sleep," she said. "In college, I will be doing that all by myself." She is not catastrophizing. She is calculating. And then she lands the pivot: "I know I am capable of doing things on my own, and eventually I will have to do things on my own, but I'm absolutely ready."

Beyond cheer, Reyes plans to pursue a Nursing degree at TAMUSA. Both tracks demand sustained output, composure under pressure, and the ability to prioritize something larger than personal comfort. One of those career paths pays significantly better than the other, but the skill transfer is real.

What she is taking with her from Roma is not a thing. It is something harder to pack. "One thing about Roma that I will be taking with me is the kindness this community brings," she said. "I love how everyone is united and kind as a small town." For a place that sometimes gets reduced to its geography or its politics, that is a meaningful characterization from someone who grew up inside it.

Roma ISD framed the signing as a threshold moment for the cheerleaders who come after her. Reyes would agree, but she frames it differently. "Anything is possible, even though at times it can be scary," she said, speaking directly to whoever comes next. "Go for it, because it's better to try than to regret your decision on not trying at all."

The bag is packed. The prayer is folded into her pocket. The good luck pins are all accounted for. Roma has always known how to send its own into the world. That is how Roma works. It loads you up with everything it has and watches you go.

@Santitos

@salinasmariasantos

Copyright © 2026 Maria Santos Salinas for FRONTeras.

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