To some, cheerleading is an amusing supplement to football games. But for 4-year-old Braelynn River Farmer, cheerleading is the way to overcome her disability — and possibly the ticket to $25,000.

The Youth Athlete of the Year competition, a collaborative project of the charity DTCare and Sports Illustrated, named Farmer as a candidate after a friend of Farmer’s mother nominated her. Farmer cheerleads for Apopka Royals Cheer and studies at Clay Springs Elementary School, all while fighting DiGeorge syndrome.

According to the Mayo Clinic website, DiGeorge syndrome, or 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, occurs when part of chromosome 22 is missing.

“Medical problems commonly related to 22q11.2 deletion syndrome include heart problems, lowered immunity, a cleft palate, complications from low levels of calcium, various eye issues and autoimmune disorders,” the website said. “Complications also include hearing loss, skeletal differences, kidney and genital differences, and delayed development with behavioral and emotional problems.”

As a result of DiGeorge syndrome, Farmer has a submucous cleft palate and may develop schizophrenia, epilepsy, or autism in the future. However, what Farmer’s mother Tiffany Clark most noticed at her daughter’s birth in 2020 was Farmer’s feet.

“She was born with club feet,” Clark said. “Both her feet were turned in and upward. They literally looked like 9 iron golf clubs.”

Because of her club feet, Farmer’s legs had to be in casts from her thighs all the way down starting at just one week of age. Those casts had to be changed once a week.

“Every time the doctor would change the cast, he would slowly start turning them, and then they would be stretched,” Clark said. “Then by the time she was a month-and-a-half old, she had to have surgery.”

The surgery involved cutting a tendon and pulling it up until Farmer’s feet were straight again. After the surgery, Farmer needed to wear braces.

“When they told me that she was going to have to wear braces, the first thing that popped in my head was Forrest Gump, but these were like little booties,” Clark said. “There was a metal bar that connected on the bottom of the shoe, and it kept her feet angled out. She had to wear those and sleep in those every night.”

DiGeorge syndrome has also left Farmer nonverbal, although she is working hard to learn how to speak. Farmer’s difficulty in speaking led Clark to call her daughter by her middle name instead of her first.

“With her being in speech therapy, and them trying to teach her how to pronounce letters and all that, I honestly thought it would be easier for her to learn how to say ‘River’ first than ‘Braelynn,’” Clark said.

Despite her inability to speak many words, Farmer still found a way to communicate her dream of cheerleading. Clark said she realized her daughter’s desire in 2023, when Farmer watched Zombies. The Disney movie musical franchise tells the story of a zombie football player and a half-human, half-alien cheerleader.

“When they are dancing and doing the stunts and everything, she’s pointing at the TV, and she’s trying to do the dances,” Clark said. “When they throw the cheerleaders up in the air, she jumps in the air and tries to land on the floor.”

Having cheered for Apopka Pop Warner Cheer and Dance and the Apopka Blue Darters, Clark was more than happy to help Farmer find a cheerleading program. Apopka Royals Cheer stood out to her as the most affordable and disability-friendly option.

“They were the only ones out there that were willing to do the whole kids with disabilities thing, which I absolutely love,” Clark said. “It’s become one big family.”

Farmer cheers for two squads in Apopka Royals Cheer. The Tiny Tiaras is a Tiny Performance Advanced Level 1 team for children 6 and under. The program teaches children floor stunts, rolls and cartwheels.

Crown Jewels, the other squad Farmer cheers in, is Apopka Royals Cheer’s disability friendly team. Crown Jewels focuses on “fine motor skills, friendships, and self-esteem,” according to the website.

Farmer’s older brother, 8-year-old Brantley Farmer, cheered in both squads alongside his sister last year, since his ADHD qualifies him for the Crown Jewels.

“It was great,” Brantley said. “I did it just for joy, to give people joy.”

Crown Jewels has given Brantley something to work on together with his sister.

“Sometimes, in my room, I have my bed and we do a stunt that I have to lift her off in,” he said. “But if she falls down, good thing she can fall down on my bed.”

River Farmer is a flyer on the Crown Jewels, which means “she gets to do the stunts and everything like that, because she’s the littlest one on that squad,” Clark said. On the Tiny Tiaras, River is bigger than several of the kids, so she is a base for the cheer pyramid.

River Farmer has had to wear braces or casts for most of her life, but in June she was able to remove her braces, helping ease her daily routine as the cheer season returns.

“Kids that are born with club feet have to wear these braces at least until the age of 5, just for that precaution of the feet turning back in,” Clark said.

When the doctor stretched River Farmer’s feet, he told Clark that River had good motion and allowed her to take the braces off early.

River Farmer has also been able to incorporate sign language into her routine. Last season, the other children had to say “A-R-C” for “Apopka Royals Cheer,” but Farmer was not able to spell it out loud with them. She spelled “A-R-C” in sign language instead.

“Once the audience saw what she was doing up on stage, the whole audience started doing the sign language with her,” Clark said. “It was the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

River Farmer’s story caught the attention of one of Clark’s friends, who nominated Farmer for the competition.

“One of my friends saw this ad on Facebook—it was for Youth Athlete of the Year with Sports Illustrated magazine—and she asked if I would be okay with them putting River’s name in it,” Clark said. “So they went ahead and they nominated her, and she got chosen.”

If selected as the winner, Farmer will receive $25,000, appear in a 3BRAND advertisement in Sports Illustrated magazine, and receive the Youth Athlete of the Year title. But Clark ultimately hopes for something more meaningful to happen.

“I’m a single mom, and it’s hard out there,” Clark said. “[The] $25,000 would be great. But my main concern is not a lot of people know about DiGeorge syndrome. That’s my main goal in getting the information out, because she looks just like a normal kid.”

No matter the competition’s outcome, Clark said that cheerleading has given Farmer the courage and motivation to learn how to speak.

“She wasn’t even trying [to speak] before we started,” Clark said. “Now that she’s around kids her own age and sees them doing the cheer, she’s actually trying. The words may not come out — it just may come out as sounds — but she’s trying, and I’ll take the trying over getting an actual word out any day.”

According to Clark, River Farmer feels like a superstar with the nomination. She’s also excited to attend the Descendants/Zombies: Worlds Collide Tour” for her birthday next month, honoring the movies that gave her the dream of cheerleading.

“She’s a trooper,” Clark said. “She doesn’t let anything stop her. She knows what she wants, and she’s going for it.” To vote for River, visit https://athleteoftheyear.org/2025/braelynn-9570. Voters may submit one free vote per day or submit more with a donation to the V Foundation for Cancer Research and Why Not You Foundation. At the time of posting, Farmer was in second place in her group and poised to move on to the next round of voting.