MANILA, Philippines – In just a decade’s span, the NU Pep Squad has risen as one of the UAAP’s greatest cheerdance programs of all time, following a convincing Season 87 championship coup on Sunday, December 1, to tie longtime leaders UST and UP with eight crowns each.
To both the trained and untrained eyes, the Jhocson-based gymnasts put out a masterful six-minute stunting extravaganza, filled with eye-catching tumbles, tosses, unique pyramids, and an air of trademark snappiness and risk-taking to match their wildly colorful outer space theme.
Even before the agonizing, ad-filled, hour-long wait to reveal the Cheerdance Competition (CDC) results, a majority of the 19,121 fans in attendance at the Mall of Asia Arena were left with an educated hunch that it was NU’s time to shine again at the top.
Almost everyone knew it would be NU, except NU itself.
Apparently tortured by their own lofty standards, second-year head coach Gabby Bajacan and the rest of his world-class wards did not want to believe they had the title in the bag — and by a statistical long shot at that — until their team was officially declared the champion by the competition host.
“Actually, I haven’t seen the scoresheet. Promise, we really didn’t expect it. We were so scared to go out there [for the awarding],” he said in Filipino. “It’s very hard with the community given that even though we’re not champions, there’s still a lot of pressure on us to give you guys a show.”
“I don’t know, I guess it’s now a part of the NU Pep Squad to push everyone’s limits just so we can do what we really want, but we never feel enough. We always feel we come up short. We never felt we were championship-caliber, even after the performance we did. I think that’s the burden we have to bear.”
Apparently, “coming up short” for NU’s standards took the form of an astounding 713-point title-clinching routine, 33 whole points ahead of eventual silver medalist Adamson Pep Squad (679.5).
For reference, the final podium spot between former champion FEU and resurgent UE was decided by a mere nine points, 650 to 641, while UST skidded to fifth just seven points below at 634.5.
Nationwide recruitment, brutal training schedule pays off
Make no mistake, Bajacan was not putting on an insincere humble-pie act. NU Pep truly has one of the league’s toughest training schedules, going daily for months on end, stretching to the wee hours of the night every single session.
Combine that with one of the most far-reaching recruitment drives in Philippine cheerleading, and you have a recipe for extreme mental pressure to deliver a guaranteed return package of gleaming gold.
“Every night, I thought about [last year’s runner-up finish] because it was huge personal pressure for me, especially with all the upheaval going on in the team,” continued Bajacan, who was spotted recruiting young gymnasts — pop-up booth and all — at the 2024 Palarong Pambansa in Cebu.
“I was scared to take on the pressure that coach Ghicka [Bernabe’s achievements] gave me, to receive that baton from her. It was all so heavy, that’s why I still can’t believe we now have eight titles. Hopefully we can get nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15…as long as we can do it, we will do so.”
If this year’s CDC was any indication, the NU Pep Squad truly isn’t going anywhere as the gold standard in UAAP — perhaps even Asian — competition.
As their theme suggested, the sky’s the limit isn’t even enough at this point. They want to go beyond. – Rappler.com