How To Become A Cheerleading Coach: What It Is and Career Path

What is a cheerleading coach and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A cheerleading coach manages a cheerleading team, which is made up of athletes that perform dances, stunts, and jumps in order to motivate a crowd. A cheerleading coach can work with any age group, from young children just learning to cheerlead to adult cheerleaders that perform for the crowd during professional sports matches. No matter what age group they work with, cheerleading coaches teach their athletes new tricks and come up with choreography. They put together a star team by holding auditions and choosing the best cheerleaders. Coaches are often responsible for administrative tasks like organizing transport to and from tournaments. They also step in if an athlete gets injured and perform basic first aid.

Many cheerleading coaches have bachelor's degrees. However, many years of cheerleading experience are more important than a classroom education.

The job of a cheerleading coach is difficult. They work long hours, including evenings and weekends, to fit in practices, games, and tournaments. Although the average salary is $43,158 a year, many cheerleading coaches have a second job. Most are not in it for the money but because they are passionate about cheerleading.

ScoreCheerleading CoachUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,111

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 20%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.22%

Asian 5.45%

Black or African American 8.92%

Hispanic or Latino 13.29%

Unknown 5.62%

White 66.50%

Gender

female 87.87%

male 12.13%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.3

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a cheerleading coach

Explore cheerleading coach education requirements

Most common cheerleading coach degrees

Bachelor's

64.2 %

High School Diploma

12.4 %

Associate

11.4 %

Start to develop specific cheerleading coach skills

Skills	Percentages
CPR	24.98%
Student Athletes	17.12%
Grade Girls	10.16%
JV	7.17%
Role Model	6.38%

Complete relevant cheerleading coach training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New cheerleading coaches learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a cheerleading coach based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real cheerleading coach resumes.

Research cheerleading coach duties and responsibilities

Lead a team of 16 to a national championship title without any assistantance.
Perform additional responsibilities as deemed appropriate by school and district supervisors such as organizing and managing elementary school mathematics information nights.
Create a PowerPoint presentation to present to new tryouts.
Help lead STA to their first and only state championship game.

Prepare your cheerleading coach resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your cheerleading coach resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a cheerleading coach resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable cheerleading coach resume templates

Build a professional cheerleading coach resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your cheerleading coach resume.