Marissa Branch joined the Santa Fe High staff in 2023. Although she is new to the staff, she is not new to the school. She attended Santa Fe High School as a cheerleader and later pursued her dream of becoming a cheerleader at NMSU. She heard about the program’s previous struggles, stating “The program wasn’t doing the best because the year before I came, it took dead last at state, so I wanted to come and share my knowledge with the kids and share my love for the sport.” She helped create more cohesiveness within the team by providing more opportunities for the team to bond and build a firm structure. The year prior, she was the assistant coach to her mom, Gina Branch, and now she’s the head coach with her mom being the assistant coach, saying she loves working with her mom. Gina Branch states, “I wanted to return as an assistant coach because it can be difficult to control 24 cheerleaders, and I want to help my daughter out and share my knowledge of cheer.” Although she was not a cheerleader in her teens, she was very involved in her daughter’s high school and college cheer life. She made sure that she did her research by reading books and stated that her favorite part of cheerleading is “Being able to be her daughter’s coach and watching her cheer in college and advance as time goes.” Cheerleading seems to be one of the hardest sports to beat stereotypes Marissa Branch helps her kids beat those stereotype allegations by sharing that she “Tells the kids that they are ambassadors of the school and they are held to a higher standard than everyone else because they are faces of the school. We hold them to a higher standard both academically and behaviorally.” One of the biggest arguments still to this day is that cheerleading is not a sport but rather a hobby but Branch shares that “They workout just as hard as any other team here on campus and you can go D1 as a cheerleader or you can go to the NFL.” Branches love for the sport has not only made her who she is today but also helped others by inspiring them to follow what they love no matter what anyone else says.