Cheer season 2 showed Monica Aldama taking a break from coaching her cheerleading team in order to compete on Dancing With The Stars season 29, and there are many reasons why that was the right thing for Monica to do at that point in time. Back in September 2020, Monica was cast on DWTS season 29 alongside celebrities such as Kaitlyn Bristowe, Chrishell Stause, Carole Baskin, Nev Schulman, and Nelly. She was paired up with pro dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy.
Over the course of DWTS season 29, Monica and Val danced to songs by "My Wish" by the Rascal Flatts, "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift, "Part Of Your World" from The Little Mermaid, "Party In The USA" by Miley Cyrus, and "Fever" by Beyoncé. Her highest score was a 27 and her lowest score was a mere 16. Monica lasted a while in the competition but ended up being eliminated in week seven during "Villains Night."
Surprisingly, Monica's stint on Dancing With The Stars was a massive point of contention on Cheer season 2 as some of her students believed that she left them in the middle of training for the National Cheerleading Championship so that she could be a celebrity competing on a reality show on ABC. It also didn't help that La'Darius Marshall passionately hated the replacement coach that was left in charge while Monica was on DWTS. But the truth of the matter is that Monica joined Navarro as a cheerleading coach in 2000 and led the team to 14 wins at the Nationals. On Cheer season 1, Monica's very own husband revealed how little he'd see her sometimes due to extended hours of training. As such, taking a few weeks off from coaching to be on her favorite TV show of all time is a very understandable decision that Monica consciously made.
There's also a little bit of context that should be noted in regards to Monica's casting on DWTS. First and foremost, Variety has reported that cast members are paid as much as $125,000 to compete in a season of Dancing With The Stars. Per ZipRecruiter, the top-earning cheerleading coaches make an estimated $37,500 per year. Comparing these figures, Monica earned nearly four times her annual salary by appearing on DWTS for two months. It is also worth noting that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nationals in Daytona were significantly delayed and an official date wasn't even scheduled for a long time. Monica was on DWTS between September and October 2020, while the Nationals didn't happen until April 2021. Thus, Navarro only had a replacement coach for a few weeks in the fall of 2020 and still had six months to prepare for the Nationals with Monica being present on campus as the coach.
Unfortunately, Monica's feud with La'Darius started during her time away on Dancing With The Stars. They used to have a contentious but healthy relationship prior to the show, but La'Darius took it to heart that Monica went away and left a less-than-great replacement coach (according to La'Darius) in charge. With that said, it's hard not to respect Monica's decision to make some extra money in the middle of a pandemic by just appearing on DWTS for a few weeks.
Cheer season 2 is now available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Variety, ZipRecruiter