Gay Spurs cheerleader almost gave up the sport. A chance audition changed his life.
San Antonio Spurs cheerleader Adrian Treviño thought his cheering days were over. Then he tried out for the NBA team.
Mark
This article is part of a continuing series of out LGBTQ people in sports in the South, a collaboration between GLAAD and Outsports. If you or someone you know would like to be included, please reach out to Darian Aaron at GLAAD.
San Antonio Spurs cheerleader Adrian Treviño had settled into his career as a realtor two years ago. The job offered endless earning potential and a comfortable living.
But like the tedious process of closing on a home, Treviño soon learned that paths aren’t always straight.
A native of Laredo, Texas, Treviño started cheering in middle school. By high school he was competing in the sport.
Studying business and marketing at the University of Texas – San Antonio, he figured he had closed the cheerleading chapter of his life.
So he thought.
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
An unexpected return happened while visiting a property in his portfolio across from the Frost Bank Center, home of the Spurs and the NBA team’s cheerleading Hype Squad.
“I had two friends on the Hype Squad that I cheered with in college, and they had been posting about [auditions],” Treviño told GLAAD and Outsports. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow. This seems really cool.’
“They had a clinic to prepare for auditions, so I was like, ‘Let me just walk over.’ I literally walked across the street and went to the prep clinic.”
If selected, Treviño would become one of eight male athletes on the Spurs Hype Squad, which includes cheerleaders, trained dancers, and breakdancers.
He landed the spot, changing the trajectory of his life.
Related
Atlanta Hawks dancer is a proud gay man who won’t stop dancing for anybody
Calvin Brown tells GLAAD and Outsports that he is living a dream, dancing for the Atlanta Hawks as a gay man in the NBA.
Adrian Treviño isn’t new to be out or cheerleading for his team
“I grew up with four other male cheerleaders on my high school squad and also competitively, so we all helped each other and made sure that we were all on the right step,” Treviño said.
Aware of his orientation at a young age, Treviño said he’s always known he was different, which also didn’t come as a surprise to his family.
“I honestly feel like I’ve been gay my entire life,” Treviño said. I’ve never had to tell my family that I was gay. And when I did tell them, they were like, ‘Okay, we’ve always known.’”
One of six children, Treviño was raised by his grandparents. He credits his grandmother’s early support for his cheerleading as a deciding factor in his decision to continue with the sport.
“She’d be at any appearance that had to do with cheerleading,” he said. “She provided everything for me and had a late dinner ready. She was always getting me cheerleading sponsorships.
“If we couldn’t afford it, she would find a way to raise the funds. She did everything she could to make sure I had the best possible success.”
In a sport historically dominated by women, Treviño says the Spurs Hype Squad audition was about more than impressing the judges with his skill or winning over skeptical straight male fans.
“I was a little nervous at first because I hadn’t cheered in four years at that point. It felt like I was dusting off my bones and coming out of retirement, so to speak.
“I just fully trusted my cheerleading and my training.”
It paid off.
After several rounds of auditions—ranging from video submissions to a four-day in-person finals— Treviñohad to execute choreography and show his best stunts.
“I did six standing back tucks in a row, and I got the crowd going, and the audition judges were really excited,” Treviño said.
Three weeks after the final auditions, Treviño received the news that would define his next chapter.
“I was actually at an open house working, and that’s when I got the email that I made the team,” Treviño said. “It was really cool that both of my worlds were colliding. It was a really exciting time.”
One thing that Treviño says separates the Spurs Hype Squad from other NBA teams is the permission he and his teammates have to show up in the fullness of their identities.
“Some days I’ll rock a full beard, some days I’ll come clean shaven, and some days I’ll have a full beat with makeup,” he said. “And some days I’ll just have a bare face and rock my clear skin.”
Whether sporting a Telfar handbag or a see-through black lace bodysuit in the middle of the street on a regular day, Treviño said the team’s coach doesn’t limit their personal expression.
“He just wants us to be well-groomed and smelling good,” Treviño said. “As long as we come put together, and represent ourselves, he doesn’t care.”
Hasanain Ali, Treviño’s boyfriend of nearly six years, has grown to appreciate his partner’s gender fluidity.
“When we started dating, he was like, ‘Wow, there are so many eyes on us, or you’re always having me take your picture, and people are staring,” Treviño said.
Treviño has that key ingredient with the Spurs: support
Treviño credits Ali’s unyielding support throughout both seasons on the Spurs Hype Squad as one of the main ingredients of his success. His gay uncles, married for 55 years, added extra sauce to the pot of support.
“I love them for all that they model for my partner and me,” Treviño said. “They took me under their wings, set me up for success, and guided me.
“Hasanain has also been really supportive.”
With two seasons as a Spurs Hype Squad member behind him, Treviño is now considering the next chapter in his career.
“I said from the beginning of the season that this would be my last,” he said. “Cheerleading is definitely taking a toll on my body—flipping on the hardwood floor, on cement, carrying people, coming home with bruises and broken fingers—I still think this is going to be my last season.”
Instead, Treviño wants to pursue professional dance training over the next year and maybe try out for an NFL team. Wherever he lands, the adrenaline rush from performing before thousands will pause—for now.
“Every time I perform, I literally get teary-eyed and so filled with endorphins and dopamine,” Treviño said. “It’s just so thrilling being out there [on the court].”
As the crowd goes silent and Treviño leaves the NBA court, perhaps for the final time, he says he “will miss the culture and tradition that San Antonio has nourished for generations behind the Spurs.
Subscribe to the Outsports newsletter to keep up with your favorite out athletes, inspiring LGBTQ sports stories, and more.
