11 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Illinois and Maryland with over 110 teams (2019-2020)
Cheer Extreme Allstars is a branch of cheerleading and competition dance gyms found throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, Florida and Virginia.[1] Cheer Extreme is best known for its level six (or "Worlds") teams, which have won numerous titles at the Cheerleading Worlds. Cheer Extreme Senior Elite, of the Kernersville, NC, location, finished in first place at the Cheerleading Worlds in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2023, 2025, and 2026; Cheer Extreme SSX (also known as Small Senior X) of the Raleigh, NC, location finished in first place in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2024, 2025, and 2026; and Cheer Extreme Code Black, also of Raleigh, finished in first place in 2019, 2024, 2025, and 2026. As a franchise, Cheer Extreme has won over 850 National Champion titles.[2]
In 2009, an owner and coach Courtney Smith-Pope, who was a cheerleader for Wake Forest University, won Coach of The Year sponsored by the USASF. In 2013, Cheer Extreme opened a location in Roanoke, Virginia. In 2015, Cheer Extreme opened a location in Waldorf, Maryland. In 2022, they opened a new location in Boynton Beach, Florida. The two most notable locations are in Kernersville, NC and Raleigh, NC. Courtney Smith-Pope is the owner of the Kernersville location and her sister Kelly Helton owns the Raleigh location. [3] CEA was originally opened by Betsy Smith before ownership was passed down to her daughters.[4]
Cheer Extreme Senior Elite was invited to a private audition in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the reality television show America's Got Talent, but did not make it on the actual televised show. They have also been featured in Inside Cheerleading Magazine.[5] In 2011, CNN featured specials on Cheer Extreme's Senior Elite and SSX teams while they made their way to the 2011 Cheerleading World Championships.[6]
In the making is a documentary that is reportedly following them through the 2012–2017 seasons.[needs update]
