Want to start a fight? Get a bunch of couples together and ask, innocently over dinner, whether everyone believes that cheerleading is a real sport, on par with football or basketball. It’ll only take one former quarterback mouthing off before the words “sexist pig” make an appearance. And don’t even think about mentioning the over-the-top drama of Bring It On.
If you’re among the skeptics, consider this: At Southwestern High School in Somerset, Kentucky, cheer season never ends. Tryouts are held in April, to begin the long journey to nationals the following February. The off-season, if you want to call it that, consists of the month of March, and the team spends that time conditioning to prepare for tryouts. “Cheerleading is year-round for us,” says coach Britani Shoemaker.
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Then there’s Burlington Township High School in New Jersey, where the cheer squad has won 17 state and three national championships. Whenever the team returns home from another successful run at the National High School Cheerleading Championship, held annually at Disney World and broadcast on ESPN, the students are greeted with a full-on parade. Fire trucks lead them through the streets. “All of the community comes in,” says coach Sorina Haddock. “They meet us at the school when we come back, just to help us celebrate and really give these girls an opportunity to see the love that the community is giving them.”
For the documentary American Cheerleader, film crews followed Burlington Township and Southwestern through the 2012–13 cheer season. As luck would have it, the two schools bested hundreds of opponents from across the country, through several rounds of competition, to end up as the top two teams at nationals. (We won’t give away who won.) “Going to Nationals, it’s really, really exciting,” says Burlington Township cheerleader Zoe Brun. “We just really want to put what we have on the floor, in front of the Disney background.”
Even just watching the film’s two-minute trailer, you can see the intensity of competitive cheerleading. The teams’ lifts and pyramids require acrobatic athleticism. If the number of knee braces is any indication, the girls’ young bodies are tested and strained. One fall, drop, or misstep can spell doom, so consistency and precision are paramount. Pressure is a constant, with every team thirsting for the white jackets bestowed upon champions.
The cheerleaders appreciated that the movie showed all of the blood, sweat, and tears that go into preparing a championship-level routine. “The movie really exemplifies all of the hard work that we put into cheerleading and really shows everybody else what we do behind the scenes,” says Southwestern cheerleader Jill Collier.
Initially, having cameras at practice only added to the anxiety, but eventually, the cheerleaders got used to the added spotlight, and it became a motivator. “They actually were very excited, because they knew it was attached to their journey going into nationals,” Haddock says. “I would say from a training perspective, my girls actually started to push a little harder.”
And while the pressure is intense, Haddock’s fellow coach at Burlington Township, Kim Gaskin, says the benefits outweigh the costs. “Nationals is like the Super Bowl of cheerleading,” she says. “It gives cheerleaders an opportunity to demonstrate their creativity and their skills at the highest level.”
Gaskin says the best part of the film, though, is that it shows the impact that cheerleading can have on students. “You see how these kids break through the barriers of the day-to-day challenges, whether it’s injury or whether it’s family situations,” she says. “They work together to make a difference. When you look at today’s kids, no matter who they are, no matter their size, their color, whatever, anybody can be an American cheerleader.”
American Cheerleader will show at 2:15 on Sunday, November 16, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema, as part of the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival.
