Houston native, Emily Aguilar, is currently featured on the sports show All Round Champion, streaming on the BYUtv app. The show features a cast of talented athletes who teach each other their sport and compete in challenges to win points and become the next ‘All Round Champion.’
In an interview with Houston Family Magazine, the 15-year-old discussed her love of sports which she has fostered since childhood.
“I did some [sports] at a really young age, I think four years old, like gymnastics. I play soccer, and swim. I’ve always been on the athletic side”
She also has a passion for dance and has done hip-hop since she was young. “I’ve always been very competitive,” Aguilar said.
How She was Chosen
That athleticism scored Emily a spot on All-Round Champion, after the show reached out to her dance company here in Houston, and she was one of the chosen contenders to audition for the show due to her talent.
“I interviewed, and I was the best one there,” she joked.
The sport she brings to the show? Break dancing.
Bring it On
“It’s a different kind of setting,” she said about her experience breakdancing. “The people are helpful, and they push you a lot. It’s very intense.” But she stood by the welcoming aspect of the break-dancing community and spoke of how they always supported her at competitions and other dance events.
This was her first experience on a film set. “It was weird at first for all the cameras to be around,” she said. “I had to get used to it. It did take a while, but it was cool to see.”
Aguilar talked of how she did not expect to get as close as she did to the other athletes on the show. “The staff, the athletes, the camera people, they’re all really nice and were all funny too. After a while, I kind of forgot that the cameras were there.”
Emily went on to explain the show and how it worked.
The ABC’s of the Show
“Every week it’s a new sport. There’s a person that does the sport, and a sport leader that helps them teach us their sport. The first two sports were spring canoe and beach volleyball.”
For scoring, Aguilar explained that there’s a “podium at the end, where people win medals and shoutouts at the end [of every episode].” First, second, and third place win points. Shoutouts, which the athletes vote on, also award points.
The shot was shot in Canada, in the Toronto area. The athletes hail from all over the United States and some parts of Canada, such as Ontario. Aguilar was the only competitor from the Southern half of the United States.
Growing Pains
“I don’t really like to see myself on screen,” Aguilar admitted. “But it is actually cool to see that I did that. None of my family have ever done stuff like that. They’re really proud of me.”
Aguilar said that her parents were not with her while shooting the show. “I went without seeing family for like three months. But it wasn’t that bad being away from home. I’ve never been away from my parents that long. But with the people there, it went really fast.”
“They were like a second family,” she reminisced, speaking of how she and her fellow competitors met up recently after the show wrapped.
Back to Normal
Aguilar spoke about what her transition back to normal life had been like since returning from the show.
“It was some getting used to, as we had to wake up really early over there, and I don’t have to wake up early over here. It’s been five to six months, I’m back to normal.”
Emily talked about how her fellow contestants would support her if she struggled at all during filming, and how their encouragement made her time there relatively fun.
Lofty Goals
Emily aims to be an Olympian in the future, competing in the emerging category of break dancing.
“It’s a new sport and it’s growing,” she said. “I think it would be really cool, to be the first in my family to go to the Olympics.”
Emily was still determining how the process of bringing break dancing into the Olympics permanently would work since it will be competed for the first time this July at the 2024 Olympics.
“There’s a lot of people that support it and want to watch it, so hopefully it keeps going in the future,”
“It was a great experience,” she asserted, and she wants to encourage others her age to go for any opportunities to do something like she did if it comes their way.
“It’s gonna be something you look back on in the future and say I don’t regret doing that,”
The show currently has four episodes out on streaming, with new episodes dropping each week! Visit www.byutv.org or download the app to stream.
