Cheer Squad

When I started watching this show I had absolutely no interest in cheerleading whatsoever but someone I trusted had suggested that I give it a go.

In 6 short hours I went from disinterested to a total nervous wreck given to fits of ugly crying and loving everything that years of American cinema had taught me to despise.

What happened to Sherbs' basket? Will Jerry ever make mat? When will Morgan point her toes on a full out? Can anyone save Gabi from her own parents?

Can Navarro triumph at Daytona?

Maybe it's slightly overlong but investment in the first three episodes truly pays off in the last three....

....and that last episode.......

......I seem to have something in my eye again ......

This series was great! After each episode, I wanted to watch more. The last episode was emotional and by far the best. Great documentary.

This docu-mini-series is interesting and well-done by the filmmakers! The series is 6 episodes, which feels like just the right length. It's a little bit slow to get going, but once it does, it is well worth it. It's TV drama gold because of how crazy it is, yet clearly none of it is manufactured by the filmmakers. This cheerleading program is just off-the-rails nuts.

The cheerleaders compete with broken ribs and coaches refer to it as some made-up word called "rib-e-osis." They get irritated when the cheerleaders go to the ER with injuries. It is some of the worst coaching I've ever seen in any sport, yet the head coach is put on a pedestal almost like a cult leader.

These kids are sweet, they work really hard, and unlike most reality shows where the drama lies in the interpersonal conflict, there is little of that type of conflict here. Instead, the conflict is just in how demanding and unsafe this sport is. Eye-opening and worth a watch! You'll root for the kids but you'll drop your head in your hands as you watch the coaching.

I spent 40 years as an investment banker for Texas municipal bonds. During that time, I had to sit through a school board meeting where the board president was being arrested for shooting his wife, where a community member screamed at the district lawyer for being "a Mexican," and where a husband hit the superintendents for sleeping with his wife. But, by far, I never experience ANYTHING as bad as a "cheerleader controversy." I sat for four hours while community members came close to blows over whether the cheerleader should be suspended over drinking beer at the game, or whether it was true that it "was just NyQuil."

In small town Texas, cheerleaders are the closest thing to royalty. They are terrific athletes and they are full of drama.

This is the peak of the lives of a lot of kids, and it deserves as much acclaim as "Friday Night Lights."

Trinity Valley was one of my clients, and I miss those kids.

Classify them as "athletes."

I am not from the US, and cheerleading is not a thing here. I obviously knew it was a thing because of movies and tv-shows and these did really mostly present it as like "not hard" or its only "dumb blonde girls" doing it. Personally I saw that it probably takes a huge amount of practice and effort to do it before I watched this, but I really didn't know anything about how competitive it is for so many young athletes. It's insane how many injuries occur almost every other day and how hard they have to work to get everything done right. Nothing but huge respect to all the people involved here.

As for the documentary itsself, I think it really does its job well. The bigger picture is the training for the Daytona competition, but they also take their time to focus on some of the athletes involved and I really appreciated that. All in all a great documentary that is also really captivating because you really start rooting for these people to succeed.

Can only recommend this for people who are interested in sports and how athletes practice, not only for cheerleading but for other types of sports too.