Venom Allstars cheer community comes together for gym owners post-accident

Venom Allstars may be a small cheerleading gym, but the heart that goes into it is huge.

That was more than proven just a couple of weeks ago, after the Winter Garden gym’s owners were involved in a head-on collision on State Road 429.

The owners, Dr. Phillips residents Khang and Cici Nguyen, were on their way to ESPN Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World Resort on Thursday, April 15, to turn in paperwork for that weekend’s UCA Nationals cheerleading competition. For Venom, it is among the biggest competitions of the year.

The Nguyens sustained serious injuries, and although that was a primary concern, it wasn’t their only one. They also are parents to three girls under 3 years old. On top of it all, the accident happened just days before the competition for which they had worked so hard preparing their teams. 

#VENOMSTRONG K+C

“After that initial accident, our big thing was, ‘Who’s going to take care of the girls? Who’s going to break it to them?’” Khang Nguyen said. “They’re so young. … Our next concern was, ‘Who’s going to take care of the gym?’ UCA Nationals is  the biggest competition in cheerleading next to Summit, one of the biggest of our regular season. … We’re a small gym, so it’s just me and my wife and two other staffers taking on six teams at the gym.

“That was our main concern: How are they going to compete without us?” he said. “Especially with COVID and all the restrictions going on with it, for us in our heads it was like, ‘There’s no way this is going to happen, and there’s no way we’re going to make it.”

The Nguyens were worried, but the Venom cheer family and their two other staff members — Sandy Long and Gabriella Pace — already were steps ahead of them.

Khang and Cici Nguyen’s families immediately stepped in to take care of their daughters, and even older Venom members were clamoring for the chance to babysit and help.

Then, there was the gym. Not only was UCA Nationals that weekend, but also, the paperwork still had to be turned in to ESPN Wide World of Sports by Friday, April 16. That’s when the magic and hustle happened.

Long and Pace took it upon themselves to go to the gym in the middle of the night after the Nguyens’ accident to print new paperwork. The next day, some of the gym’s members went to work going house to house with the paperwork for members to fill out.

“They drove to individual people’s houses — and we have (more than) 70 members at our gym — so they could get it in a timely manner, and they handled all of that,” Khang Nguyen said. “By Friday, those kids and the staff had already got all the paperwork together. Then all our parents said, ‘Hey, you know what ... we’re going to come to the gym and make these T-shirts.’ They made T-shirts that said ‘#VenomStrong K+C,’ which is Khang and Cici. The parents and staff, they came together, and we didn’t have to worry about a thing.”

‘THEY RALLIED’

And it was all worth it. Three of Venom’s five teams ended up winning the competition in their respective divisions. Even the other two received second and third place.

“For them to come together and to do all this — it was probably one of the greatest human moments we’ve ever witnessed.” — Khang Nguyen

“Those kids — they came together; they rallied,” Khang Nguyen said. “The older kids took on responsibilities, and they went to competition and said they were going to do it for us. … It lifted such a huge weight. That’s our gym, that’s our baby, and we started that gym with 16 athletes. … We had two teams our first year, and now we have six teams. It was incredible what everyone was able to do.”

Not being able to be there for their teams on one of the biggest weekends of the year was crushing, especially for Cici Nguyen. Khang Nguyen said Venom is her dream, and it’s what she’s always wanted to do. Luckily, their staff and cheer family came together to ensure they didn’t have a thing to worry about.

“Cici and I are simple people,” Khang Nguyen said. “All we want is to be coaches and train theses athletes and teach them good things so eventually they take on those core principles and be good people, be good humans and help out the world. For them to come together and to do all this — it was probably one of the greatest human moments we’ve ever witnessed.”

‘IT’S BEEN INSANE’

One of the gym’s first members, Sarah Ergle, started a GoFundMe to assist the Nguyens with upcoming medical bills. The accident was serious, and although the Nguyens are on the road to recovery, it’s going to take a while to fully heal.

“At that point we were just focused on surviving and making it through this,” Khang Nguyen said. “As childish as it sounds, we didn’t really think about those bills and all that stuff. … All of a sudden, that GoFundMe started, and we started receiving all these phone calls and text messages from all my friends, all her friends and all our parents and families about how much they want to help us. It’s been insane.”

Khang Nguyen said there’s no way he can thank Long, Pace and the Venom families enough for what they have done.

“I don’t see any other community or group of people being able to do what they did,” he said. “They just all care about each other so much ... and all they wanted was for Cici and I to get better. … It’s amazing how incredible these people are and how lucky and blessed we are to have surrounded ourselves with these people.”