It Takes a Village to Get Things Done for College Cheerleader Alayna Collins

Alayna Collins is shown here cheering during a basketball game at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., this past season. (Photo by Danny Vaughn)

By Jamie H. Vaught

KySportsStyle.com Magazine

Alayna Collins was not a typical college cheerleader.

Now a former cheerleader at Lincoln Memorial University who just graduated with a master’s degree in educational leadership on May 3, Collins has managed to survive this past school year of 2024-25 while juggling her busy or perhaps crazy schedule.

While studying as a graduate student and serving as a graduate assistant on LMU’s cheerleading squad in Harrogate, Tenn., Collins taught full-time during her first year of teaching as a second-grade teacher at a local elementary school in Claiborne County. She has a license to teach K-5.

Collins, who earlier graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at LMU while maintaining a 4.0 GPA during her last two years, has been cheerleading for a long time, including five years at LMU.

In addition, she is married. She and her husband, Will, have a daughter who will be four in mid-May.

So, as you can tell, Collins certainly had her hands full, especially during this past school year.

Alayna Collins on LMU campus (Photo by Jamie H. Vaught)

“I managed my crazy schedule with my family. It takes a village,” said a thankful Collins. “My mom helped out a lot, all thanks to her. She'll get up in the mornings and she'll take my daughter to daycare. My husband takes her to daycare, he picks her up and they're just really good. His family's good if we ever need them to help watch her, and (LMU cheerleading coach) Rhileigh (Alred) was good. She would let me take her to practice with me so she'd be our little cheerleader over there. It takes a village. My family helped a lot.”

Since she had been hired as a full-time teacher at Midway Elementary School last summer, Collins considered retirement from cheerleading but decided to continue to cheer.

“It's my first-year teaching as well so I was debating should I do it, should I not do it?” explained Collins, a graduate of Cumberland Gap High School where she also served as a cheerleader. “That's a lot to juggle. My cheer coach (at LMU), Rhileigh Alred, pushed me and she was like, ‘Alayna, if this is something you want to do, go for it. You can be the graduate assistant and it'll help pay for your schooling.’ And I was looking for it on the master's side of once I get that degree, it'll be a pay raise for me. That was a good motivator too.”

Said Alred, “Alayna and I were once teammates during our LMU cheer journey. At times, she would base (which is a cheer term involving stunting) for me, and other times, we would both be flyers — she truly did it all. When she reached out to me about another year during my first year as a coach, I knew it was meant to be. Alayna completed her senior year last year (2023-24) which was also my first-year coaching at LMU.

“This (past) year, she became my grad assistant and a fifth-year senior. I had no doubt in her ability to handle it all. I knew she loved cheer as much as I did, and together we would make it happen. We often talked about how exciting it was for her to spend her final year cheering at UCA Nationals (in Orlando, Fla.), marking the first time in program history. She had the privilege of being part of this opportunity, and I could not be more proud of her. It was the perfect way to end her cheerleading career, and I’m so grateful to call her not only a former teammate and cheerleader but also a friend and co-worker. We both love LMU cheer, and we always will.”

On her early cheerleading days, Collins said, “I just saw it and I got interested in the tumbling part of it first. I started with gymnastics when I was little, and our elementary school had a cheer team. My dad is a physician and he didn't want me doing it. He was completely against it and I begged him. I was like, ‘Dad, please, it's something I'm really interested in.’ And he eventually came around to it and he was like, ‘But you're not getting in the air.’ From there things progressed and he let me slowly do things and he just wouldn't look sometimes. It started with tumbling, and I just found a love for it.”

Collins, who has received numerous awards for academic excellence as a college student athlete, said her favorite moment as a cheerleader was “winning UCA Nationals with my college cheer team. We got fourth place so that was a big deal to us. That was the first time ever going in LMU history. That was a milestone for us. It was something that we set and we're looking forward to making that a new thing, going to nationals and hopefully they can take it home and win it.”

Alayna Collins

Even though Collins is retiring as a cheerleader, she will continue to be active in the sport at Midway Elementary School, which is also a middle school.

“I just recently accepted a position as the new head cheer coach at my school. As an old chapter closes, a new one begins,” smiled Collins, who has cheered for a total of 13 years. “I found my passion for cheerleading in middle school with my coach Tabitha Miles, and I just want to be able to do that for the girls and help them find that passion. And it opens up a lot of opportunities too for the future and going to college. I got the opportunity to cheer through my master’s (degree) and I want to let them know that you can get scholarships and stuff in the future. Work hard now and you can find that passion for it and keep going with it.”

Collins, who grew up in Johnson City and moved to Harrogate when she was in the sixth grade, studied education because she enjoys working with school-age children.

“I love watching little kids learn and grow,” she said. “That is something so special to me. Watching them get something and watching it click. I just love it. I love knowing that I'm helping them and I'm something for them in their life and they can look back and hopefully I was a positive impact on their life. I'm hoping that I leave a legacy for them.

“(Teaching is) extremely rewarding. Love seeing those smiles on the kids' faces.”

As mentioned earlier, Collins said, “It has taken a village to accomplish everything I have while having a family, remodeling a house, working full-time, cheering at LMU, and being a full-time student.”

Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published “Forever Crazy About The Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro., he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.