"Cheer" and "Dare Me" Are Giving Cheerleading a Necessary Dose of Respect

Gabi Butler tumbling pass cheered on by Navarro teammates. Image: Netflix

Imagine showing up to practice with a freshly sustained back injury and your coach decides you need to be punished for not putting your team first. That punishment: practice harder.

Images: Netflix

Since the release of Netflix’s hit docuseries Cheer, the extreme physicality of the sport is gaining the attention it has long deserved. However, the NCAA still does not recognize cheerleading as a sport, nor do many states. This is a problem in itself.

Bruised ribs, broken ankles, and knocked out teeth—that’s the world of competitive cheerleading.

In the third episode of the series created by Greg Whitely of Last Chance U, Navarro College head coach, Monica Aldama, finds out one of her cheerleaders, TT Barker, competed with an all-star team—competition teams similar to private sports clubs—days prior, against her demands. When he faces a severe enough back injury that the school’s trainer advices him not to practice, Aldama pushes him to go “full out” until the athlete drops to the ground sobbing.

But Barker isn’t the only Navarro cheerleader to undergo an injury throughout the series’ six episodes. Mackenzie “Sherbs” Sherbman is benched after a fall that has her rushed to the hospital mid-practice, and from the look of things, if Aldama is stopping practice it must be serious.

Mackenzie “Sherbs” Sherbman missed catch by her Navarro teammates. Image: Netflix

But it isn’t just Cheer giving these athletes some much needed respect.

USA’s Dare Me—a scripted thriller based on Megan Abbott’s book by the same name—shows a team of high school girls kicked, punched, and knocked to the ground until they achieve perfection. In a recent episode, RiRi, played by Taveeta Syzmnanowicz, takes a horrific and bloody kick to the face, knocking out a slew of teeth, as a stunt drops to the ground. For cheerleaders, falls like this are reality.

Alison Thornton as Tacy Cassidy and Taveeta Syzmanowicz as RiRi. Image: USA Network

Jacqulyn Pador, a former high school, all-star, and cheer coach, suffered similar fates as a flier throughout her career. “My freshman year [in high school], my stunt group was solid, but another wasn’t, so they changed my group in the warm-up room about five minutes before we went on,” she stated. After taking the mat, Pador’s new group struggled through their first stunt. During the drop, she suffered a hit to the face but pushed through, until she reached the pyramid. “As I came down, I felt my nose running and I wiped it,” she said. “It was bleeding. I tried to continue but it kept gushing out. I had to run off the mat.”

The intensity of this sport isn’t new. In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that cheerleading was responsible for a large majority of female athletes’ injuries. “Cheerleading accounted for 65.0% of all direct catastrophic injuries to girl athletes at the high school level and 70.8% at the college level,” the report stated. These catastrophic injuries include skull fractures, closed-head injuries, and cervical spine injuries that resulted in permanent brain injury, paralysis, or death, while in-direct catastrophic injuries include heat stroke and cardiac collapse from exertion. Injuries like these result in long-term effects that impact participants even after leaving the sport.

Gabriella Perrello, a former high school and all-star cheerleader, experienced these effects firsthand. “Five years ago I couldn’t open my mouth fully or chew food; I started getting migraines daily and found out it was because of a bone in my neck that had moved out of place.” Her doctor believes the effects were likely from the constant hits she suffered as a cheerleader.

The bad, however, isn’t the only thing that stays with former cheerleaders after retiring their uniforms.

Navarro College Cheerleaders. Image: Netflix

Chelsea Pierotti, a performance coach, as well as a psychology and neuroscience instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, spoke to the HuffPost about the pressures of cheerleading and the lasting benefits of those involved.

“With good coaching and the right culture, athletes learn to persevere when there is a challenge, work together for a common goal, and believe in their own ability to learn and achieve,” she said.

Pador and Perrello both agree.

“It taught me so many lessons that I still use today, a good work ethic and to never give up. You learn to work with difficult people and that carries over into the real world,” said Pador, and Perrello’s sentiments were similar.

“Cheerleading was worth everything to me. It gave me purpose when I was messing up my life. I had to really get myself on track because I couldn’t lose cheer. That was my motivation.”