Lizzy DeCologero Celebrates The Ultimate Balancing Act!

BY KAYLEE HASENBANK & SARAHY MORA RINCON

Inside Cheer sat down with the amazing Lizzy DeCologero to learn more about her iconic cheer journey, her comeback in the sport, and how she’s now balancing a new life in the industry!

THE BEGINNING

How old were you when you first started cheerleading, and what initially inspired you to get involved in the sport?

I started cheering around kindergarten, so I was about 5 years-old. My older cousin was a cheerleader, so by the time I was able to walk, she was flipping me around and dressing me up. She was definitely the inspiration for me when I was younger. From there, it just kind of blew up, and I ended up just slowly trickling out of the other sports. When I first started, I got into flying, but I took it upon myself to offer to try different positions. From 7th grade to graduating high school, I was a main base, a side base, and a flyer, just depending on the team that I was on. I was always stretching in the mirror and when someone needs me to get up there, I’m gonna get up there! And it came in handy, because when I got to college, they were like, “you’re super short, and we hope you can fly,” and I said,”I got you!”

Where did you cheer during college?

I went to Coastal Carolina University. It’s a D1 college in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I was exposed to everything cheering there–-Game Day, Daytona, I cheered for the football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball— everything that you can think of, we were there!

How did each level of cheer—youth, high school, collegiate, and All Star levels—shape you as an athlete?

I’m one of those people, I’ve just been stuck in a time machine, or like the goldfish theory, where my love for cheerleading started, and it just continued to grow. I think that cheerleading is one of those sports that teaches you so many life lessons. Time management, dedication, leadership, being a good teammate—all of those things that I learned in cheerleading helped me in so many aspects of the real world such as getting a job, working with different teams, and now coaching. Being on different levels and different teams, you encounter different challenges. The biggest one for me is figuring out how to overcome adversity. If I didn’t learn that in cheerleading, I feel like life would be so much harder. It’s taught me to always look for the positive in every situation. I think what people don’t really think about a lot as cheerleaders is we’re constantly being compared to perfection. We train for two minutes and 30 seconds, and that routine has to be two minutes and 30 seconds of perfection. All Star taught me about figuring out what you’re good at, and striving to be really, really good at it, and I carried that into collegiate cheer. Each level exposes you to different responsibilities and different lessons that you learn from each environment.

THE BALANCE! COACHING VARSITY & LADY LUX

What made you decide to try out for Lady Lux in 2024?

At the end of the 2024 season, I was convinced that I was retiring. Looking back on my entire cheerleading journey, I felt like I deserved an opportunity to feel some of the things that my previous teammates that have gone on to bigger programs have felt. The year that I graduated high school and went off to college, a lot of them stayed for their super senior year, and they won Worlds. So, I had to watch my team go out and win Worlds the year that I left and moved on. I felt like I knew so many people in the cheerleading industry that maybe just didn’t love cheerleading as much as I did, didn’t spend as much time in the gym as I did or didn’t care as much as I did, that got to go off and be world champions, and I said, ‘I know how good I am, and I feel like I deserve the opportunity to try.’ So, I made a video and I sent it to Cheer Extreme.

You were coaching your second year at Austin Prep in Massachusetts while training in North Carolina. How did you manage that demanding travel schedule?

It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done! The woman that I coach with, who’s now my best friend, worked with me on it. We figured out a schedule so that the days I didn’t have practice for Lady Lux, were the days that my high school team was practicing. I would plan for Tuesday morning flights to North Carolina, and then Wednesday morning flights back to Boston. There’s no easy way to do it—I would get on the Logan Express bus from Boston, and head to the airport at 5 a.m., I would get on a flight, rent a car, and then drive an hour and a half to Kernersville, and then drive an hour and a half back to Raleigh, sleep at a friend’s house, get on my 6 a.m. flight the next morning, and try and make it to practice by 2 o’clock!

Were you working anywhere else besides coaching?

I work remotely. So that’s my saving grace, and that’s how I have been able to do it. As I’m doing all this traveling, I’m also working on my laptop at the same time, juggling a million things. It was a really big financial thing for me as well. I was paying for flights every week, hotels, car rentals, and then tuition. It was a lot!

THE COMEBACK

What was going through your mind the moment when you realized something was seriously wrong?

That was the first ever major injury I’ve ever had in cheerleading. The one thing I will say about myself in the 25 years that I’ve been cheering is that I have a very high pain tolerance. I get whacked in the face, I’m like, let’s do it again, right? I know when something’s wrong, and in that moment, I tried to stand up and completely collapsed to the ground. I knew something wasn’t right. I had never felt that feeling before. It’s kind of weird when you get an injury, because time stops around you. You only have time to just think about what the heck is going on, and what does this mean?

Despite the injury, you chose to compete the next day. What gave you the determination to keep going?

I will say adrenaline does crazy things. We ended up Door Dashing a few different braces from Target, CVS, whatever we could find! I went to the trainer the next day, they wrapped it. They used a bunch of athletic tape, they wrapped my knee, we used the brace, it was the ugliest brace ever. It had reflective light on it, so you could see me all the way from the top of the arena, just flashing. My jumps weren’t super high that day, but they were in the air, which is all that matters. I was super nervous that day, but luckily everything went well! I knew that all of my friends and kids I coached were in that arena watching me, so it was almost like I could hear them screaming for me, which was so helpful.

You competed the remainder of the season with a ruptured ACL and torn meniscus. How did you stay positive?

I was positive in front of everyone. I was the jumper and the performer. That was my job on Lady Lux. When I was injured, it made my jumps worse and restricted me from performing to the best of my ability. It’s like stripping your value. In front of my team, I still had to push through that injury to show them my value. I still have value, I can still perform through this injury, but going home and unwrapping that knee at the end of the night, and just seeing it screaming at you, like, “what are you doing to me?” It was one of those things where you can either look at this in a negative way, or look at how strong I didn’t know I was until right now.

In April 2025, you became a World Champion. What do you remember most about that moment?

It was a relief! Your shoulders just relax, you can breathe again. There were so many people on our team that were trying to win for the first time. It was crazy to see how every time you win, it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve won. At that moment, standing there on day two at awards, we weren’t sure that we were going to win because Day 2 was not a solid hit for us. I was mentally preparing myself for maybe everything that I’ve done isn’t going to pay off in the way that I thought it would, but it’s paid off in the sense that I’ve learned a lot about myself. When we won, it was just the biggest relief. Because you know what they say, the work is worth it!

Your team later became Massachusetts State Champions for the first time in school history. What did that moment mean to you as a coach?

Being a coach is a crazy experience because you’re no longer in charge of your own dreams and aspirations, but you’re now in charge of other kids’ dreams and aspirations. You can coach them into a good routine, you can give them advice, encourage them, but essentially they’re the kids on the mat, doing the routine. Being able to watch them win it on their own and to see their dreams come true, and everything that they’ve worked for, it’s just as rewarding as winning my own championship.

What advice would you give athletes who are chasing big dreams later in their cheer careers?

If it makes you happy, do it. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, if it’s something that makes sense to you, it doesn’t have to make sense to everybody else. I think that everyone needs to know that sometimes you’re a little bit stronger than you think you are!

Quick Hits!

College major: Communications with a minor in business marketing

Go to drink on competition day: Sparkling water, and a fruit cup from Starbucks every morning.

Pre-performance superstitions: If we have a good day one, I have to do my makeup in the same exact order, and listen to the same exact playlist in that order. And this past year, on the first day of my practice in Kernersville, I found a penny on the ground, and I put it in my shoe, and that penny stayed in my shoe for every practice and every competition until the very last day.

Favorite pre-warmup hype song: “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus

Three things always in your cheer bag: KT Tape, white rhinestone scrunchie, Charlotte Tilbury lip combo

Favorite meal after competing: Burger & french fries