After her freshman year she transferred back to New York to UAlbany to cheer and finish up her education in English. She returned to Texas for college and earned a cheer national championship as part of the team at Stephen F. Up here, when I arrived, cheer wasn’t very advanced,” Forte said. “In the south, especially in Texas, everything is football and cheer. While finishing high school at Niskayuna, she traveled to New Jersey and New Hampshire - three hours one-way - to work out and perform at the same elite athletic level she left behind in Texas. Intensity Athletics also serves as a training venue for the cheer program at UAlbany, which is aspiring to compete on the national collegiate stage at Daytona, the competition featured in the Netflix documentary.įorte and her family moved from Texas to the Albany area in the 11th grade. The gym is recognized as a Division I level cheerleading all-star club, based on its enrollment of more than 125 athletes. One step into her gym off Fuller Road in Albany and visitors understand immediately why “intensity” is a good word to describe the family business. When I talked to Jessica Forte of Intensity Athletics while reporting for last week’s All In column profiling the sport’s boost in popularity thanks to “Cheer,” I immediately felt I found the Capital Region’s Aldama. She runs her team like a business, all while standing up for her athletes, who desperately want to win for her. Show up to class, practice, show up to your job, don’t ever call in because you don’t want to go. There’s a lot of people who count on me, whether it’s my family or work. I try to show up when people count on me. Even though we’re talking about a routine, I try to live my life like that. Q: What’s one piece of advice you’ve gotten that has guided you?Īldama: One thing we always say is, “Leave it on the mat.” And what that means is you just take everything you have and give it all in that one moment.
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