GALT, CA (MPG) - At 2 a.m. on June 1, Brittany Lampson finished a job application.

She had started the paperwork on her last day with students at Lodi High School, gotten pulled away by the demands of a teacher’s calendar, and let it sit. A reminder from the UC Davis application site nudged her back. A link a fellow coach had posted in a stunt coaching group had caught her eye, and now, in the quiet middle of the night, she hit submit.

She did not know it then, but that application would close a 25-year arc: from a freshman cheerleader at Galt High School to the first stunt coach in UC Davis history, tasked with building a Division I program from the ground up.

“My reaction when I was offered the position was shocked at first and then tears of happiness,” Lampson said. “Everything that I had experienced and learned and been through in the last 34 years all led up to that moment where I was blessed to be given this opportunity.”

For someone who has spent a quarter-century in the cheer world, the word she keeps returning to is “dream.”

“This opportunity is a dream come true,” she said. “Being in the cheer world for the last 25 years has truly been my passion, but I never thought that I would be able to do it full-time. How many people get to say their dreams have come true?”

Lampson cheered for four years at Galt High School, and from the first day, she was hooked.

“From the day I started cheerleading, I absolutely fell in love with it,” she said. “I loved performing. I loved leading the crowd. I loved being someone that people remembered and looked up to. I especially loved how athletic cheerleading is when it comes to stunting, and I love that every year the rules change so we got to continue working on harder stunts.”

She carried that love to UC Santa Barbara, where she cheered for four more years while earning a degree in sociology. The college game opened her eyes to how vast and competitive the cheerleading world really was: She even found herself at the Cheerleading World Championships in 2018. But it was the relationships that anchored her.

“I also made lifelong friendships through both my teams in high school and college cheer,” she said. “I think the bonds that cheerleading brought me are one of the many reasons that I fell in love.”

Her time at UCSB shaped more than her athletic career. Studying sociology taught her to think about how groups function, how people influence one another, and how culture and systems shape an individual’s experience: a framework she would carry into every gym and classroom afterward.

“A successful team is about so much more than individual talent,” she said. “It’s about creating a culture where everyone understands their role, feels valued and is working toward the same goal.”

After UCSB, Lampson earned her teaching credential and a master’s degree from the University of the Pacific. Teaching taught her how to meet people where they are and find new approaches when something isn’t working.

“Ultimately, I see coaching and teaching as very connected,” she said. “My goal isn’t just to develop better athletes; it’s to help develop confident, accountable, resilient people.”

Lampson taught English at McNair High School for six years, and in her second year she started the school’s stunt program from scratch: the first time she would build something from nothing.

“It was super challenging building the program from the ground up,” she said, “but I had so much support from my athletic director at the time, Quincey Noble. He made sure that I had everything that I needed to build a successful program.”

What carried the program through those early years was not pedigree. Many athletes had never been on a cheer team or stunted before. What they had was a willingness to learn and put in the work.

“The work ethic of the athletes was really what got us to be successful in those first few years,” Lampson said.

It was a pattern that would repeat: Give Lampson athletes willing to work, and she would give them a culture worth believing in.

From McNair, Lampson moved to Lodi High School, where she taught English and took over both the cheer and stunt programs. What followed was three consecutive league championships, built not on talent alone but on a culture of consistency and collective belief.

“When I took over the programs, I wanted to create an environment with high expectations, but also one where athletes felt supported and genuinely wanted to be there,” she said. “We focused on the little things every day: accountability, fundamentals, preparation, communication and being willing to work for each other.”

“Winning three consecutive league championships was incredibly rewarding,” she said, “but I’m probably most proud of the culture that developed along the way. We had athletes who bought into the process, leaders who helped bring younger athletes along, and a program where people understood that the standard was bigger than any one person.”

Ask her what she is most proud of from her time at Lodi, and the answer comes without hesitation, and it is not the trophies.

“When I look back at Lodi, I don’t think first about the trophies,” she said. “I think about the athletes who walked through those doors and the relationships we built. Knowing that I had a small part in helping them become more confident, resilient, accountable people is what I’m most proud of.”

Lampson’s coaching philosophy is simple: high standards and high support.

“I believe you can demand excellence from athletes while still making sure they know you genuinely care about them as people,” she said. “I want my athletes to know exactly what is expected of them, and I’m going to hold them accountable to those expectations. But accountability doesn’t have to mean a lack of compassion.”

She believes the best coaches push athletes outside their comfort zones while creating an environment where it is safe to make mistakes and grow. And it all comes back to relationships: knowing athletes beyond what they can do on the mat.

“When athletes know that you believe in them and are invested in their success, they’re much more willing to be challenged,” she said.

What motivates her is the love of the sport itself and the simple fact that she is, in her words, “literally living my dream.” She loves the competition, but her favorite part of coaching stunt is being on the sidelines with athletes, cheering them on, and knowing she may be a part of their lives forever.

Asked about the coaches or mentors who shaped her, Lampson points first to home, to her mother, Paige Lampson, who was also her first cheer coach through high school.

“My mom has been one of the biggest influences in my life,” she said. “She taught me the value of hard work, resilience and always believing in myself.”

The other name she returns to is Barbara Welch, the longtime Galt coach whose influence on the community runs deep.

“Barbara Welch has also had a tremendous impact on how I lead,” Lampson said. “She showed me what it means to lead with integrity, hold people accountable while supporting them, and create a positive, encouraging environment.”

In her mother and in Welch, Lampson found the two pillars of her own philosophy modeled long before she had a name for them: hard work and resilience from one, integrity and accountability balanced with support from the other. The high standards and high support she would later build her programs around were lessons handed down from the women who coached her first.

For all the excitement of a dream realized, the path to UC Davis required Lampson to walk away from the life she had built: her teaching career, her students and the athletes she had coached for years at Lodi.

“Honestly, saying goodbye to my students and athletes was probably the hardest part of making the decision to leave Lodi High,” she said. “I had spent years building those programs and relationships, and some of those girls had been with me for multiple seasons. They weren’t just athletes I coached; they became a really important part of my life.”

The goodbye was emotional: tears, hugs, conversations she will never forget. What stayed with her most was hearing from athletes about how much the program had meant to them.

“You always feel like you’re making an impact, but you don’t actually know if you have until you leave,” she said. “The love and support that I received from the girls and the community at Lodi High showed how valuable I really was.”

The hardest part, she said, was knowing she would not get to see some of those girls finish their high school careers. But she had to trust that she had built something strong enough to continue without her.

“I’m grateful that I got to leave knowing that I gave everything I had to those programs and those kids,” she said.

Lampson arrives at UC Davis with a significant advantage: She is not starting from zero. A club stunt team already existed on campus, and she respects the foundation it laid.

“The club program created a really important foundation for stunt at UC Davis,” she said. “There are athletes, alumni, traditions and a culture that already exist, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the work that went into building that.”

The task now is to build on that foundation the infrastructure and standards of a varsity Division I program: a sustainable recruiting pipeline, strength and conditioning, sport-specific training, a competitive schedule and the operational structure that comes with varsity status. But Lampson believes the most important transition is cultural. The athletes are not simply joining a new team; they are establishing the identity of the first varsity stunt program in school history.

“My approach is to honor what already exists while being intentional about where we’re going,” she said. “I want to listen to the athletes, learn what has worked, preserve the things that make UC Davis stunt special, and then raise the standards to what we need to compete at the Division I level.”

Recruiting will be central to that effort. Lampson plans to be out at combines, looking for athletes who bring more than physical ability.

“Talent can get someone noticed, but attitude and discipline determine how far they’ll go,” she said. “I want players who are willing to learn, support their teammates, stay accountable and handle both success and adversity with maturity.”

For a brand-new program, Lampson is clear that success has to mean more than the win-loss record.

“In year one, I’m also measuring success by whether we establish a strong foundation that can sustain success for years to come,” she said. “That means creating a clear identity and culture, building trust within the team, establishing high standards and developing athletes who understand what it means to represent UC Davis.”

“The goal isn’t just to have a successful inaugural season,” she said. “It’s to build a program that is still successful five, 10, and 20 years from now.”

Asked what she would say to a young cheerleader in Galt reading this article, Lampson – the woman who was once that girl, who cheered four years on that same sideline and never forgot where she came from – did not hesitate.

“I want her to know that I was her. I was once in her shoes,” she said. “No matter where you come from, your dreams are possible. Don’t let fear, self-doubt or setbacks convince you to give up. Work hard, stay coachable and believe in yourself even when others don’t. Success isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being consistent, resilient and willing to keep learning.”

Then, in a line that could serve as the motto for the program she is about to build and the life she has already lived, she added: “If I can make it from Galt to pursuing my dreams as a D1 college coach, so can she. Your journey can start right here in Galt.”

It started there for Brittany Lampson. Now it continues at UC Davis: the first stunt coach in school history, building a Division I program one standard, one relationship and one athlete at a time.