Let’s Talk Cheer: The Cheerleading Podcast For Parents & Coaches · Jason Larkins, Bleav

5 Strategies Adrian Butler Uses to Build Championship Teams From the Ground Up

November 12, 2025·1 hr 8 min·5 clips

Adrian Butler walked off the stage and quit his dream team because his focus was elsewhere.

This episode features host Jason Marquez interviewing Adrian Butler, owner of Top Gun Savannah and coach of the renowned team Revelation. Butler shares his journey from athlete to coach, detailing the philosophies and strategies behind building championship teams. The conversation centers on Butler's unique coaching methods and the pivotal moments that shaped his career. Butler began his cheer career at Cheer Florida before moving to Top Gun Miami, where he eventually coached multiple world's teams while still competing. He describes a critical moment at a JamFest event where, after a mistake on stage with Double O, he chose to step away from competing to focus fully on coaching his teams. Butler later moved to California All-Stars to broaden his experience, coaching youth teams and cheering for Cali Co-Ed before returning to the Top Gun organization. He took over a new team in Orlando, Revelation, built from athletes not selected for the legacy Angels team, and led them to a second-place finish at Worlds in their first season. The following year, Butler moved Revelation into the senior open large co-ed division, achieving an undefeated season and winning a gold globe for Top Gun Orlando. A surprising insight is Butler's emphasis on emotional connection and vulnerability, insisting that athletes and coaches share their struggles to build trust. He trains mental toughness by having teams execute skills under physically fatiguing conditions, like performing a pyramid segment after sets of burpees, to prove they can succeed under pressure. Butler also reveals that his team's Facebook page was hacked at the beginning of one season, with all their practice videos leaked anonymously, which he claims ultimately made the team tougher. He believes no coach is "too good" for any level, recalling how he humbly accepted a youth level two team when first moving to California. Butler's coaching style is a synthesis of lessons from mentors like Victor, Kristen, Jose, Eddie, and Orby, focusing on hard work delivered with clear intention and heart. The tone is conversational and reflective, blending personal storytelling with practical coaching advice. The style is motivational and educational, aimed at sharing actionable strategies within a narrative framework. This episode is ideal for cheer coaches and gym owners seeking advanced team-building philosophies and mental toughness techniques. Parents of competitive athletes would appreciate the behind-the-scenes look at high-level coaching. Listeners preferring strictly technical tutorials or those unfamiliar with all-star cheer jargon might find it less engaging.

As heard by us

A blunt cheer conversation about reps, mindset, and trust, with a coach who refuses to make himself the point.

Adrian Butler's talk with Let's Talk Cheer stays with one simple question: how do you build a champion without flattening the person underneath?

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Why you'd press play

Hear Adrian Butler of Top Gun Savannah on building champion teams without losing the heart of it.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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