ALFRED, NY – Alfred University cheerleading head coach Dr. Amy Button-Ervin has stepped down following the historic 2024 season.
 
Coach Button-Ervin was Alfred University's first head coach for the cheerleading program since it transitioned from a student-run club to an intercollegiate sport. She coached the cheerleading team while it was a club starting in January of 2018 to help it move to a varsity sport, starting in the fall of 2019.
 
Button-Ervin's first year with the varsity program was halted just prior to the start of the season due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Despite the setback, Button-Ervin and her Saxons managed to compete via video submission in the spring of 2021 and then had their first full season in 2022. They claimed the program's first ever first place finish at Penn State Behrend that year. In the 2023 season-opener, the Saxons picked up another first place finish and had three second place finishes that season.
 
It was the 2024 season that saw the Saxons have their most historic list of accomplishments. On Sunday, March 17, Alfred University hosted its first ever AU Collegiate Cheer & Dance Competition. The Saxons went on to claim first place in the Women's College All-Girl Intermediate category, defeating perennial powerhouses, Gannon University and Elmira College. AU also received recognition as the Saxons qualified for their first ever National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) College National Championships in Daytona, FL, where they finished 17^th in the nation out of the 19 teams that competed in April.
 
Coach Button-Ervin had two seasons of roster sizes of 16 cheerleaders, making both the largest rosters in the program's varsity-status era.
 
Although resigning as the cheerleading head coach, Button-Ervin will remain in her primary role on Alfred University's campus as a Professor of Psychology within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
 
A national search will be conducted soon for her replacement.