- I think that actually became illegal in competitions.
- Her chin had like an indent from one of my brace brackets.
- I didn't even like the guy.
So I don't really understand why she was so mad
and hated me so much.
(upbeat music)
- Hi I'm Spenser, I was a cheerleader
for about three years in high school.
- Hi, I'm Vanessa, I've been cheerleading
for 10 years in Rhode Island
at the university of Rhode Island and my high school.
- Hi, my name's Laura, and I was a cheerleader
for three years in high school
- When I was cheerleading in high school,
we had one practice where
we were practicing for a competition.
We were practicing a really hard pyramid,
which is multiple stunts kind of working together
to do one thing.
My coach liked to try things that was like a little bit
more difficult, 'cause then we would get more points.
My best friend, MT,
was in the middle, she was a really, really good flyer.
So she's the one who
gets like thrown up in the air, is on the top of the stunts,
and I remember there were two flyers on either side
holding onto MT.
There was a part where we had to like swing her,
and when she went to swing,
I can't remember if she kicked my friend Courtney
in their face or if her hip hit her in the face, but,
we practiced the pyramid, we went all the way through it,
everyone went to their spaces after the pyramid
to continue the routine.
And Courtney kinda just like went to the side,
or went to the front, didn't really make any noise.
I think I heard like one whimper,
but I didn't really think anything of it 'cause
cheerleading hurts. (laughs)
All of a sudden, everyone was kind of looking at Courtney.
When the flyers had swung MT,
she hit Courtney in the mouth.
But Courtney's teeth went from being like this,
to like this.
They were still there, they were fine,
she went to the dentist,
they got put back into place with braces
and it was only temporary,
but like that was the scariest thing
because I think that was the most hurt
anyone had ever gotten up until that point.
None of us knew what to do.
And even my coach was kind of like, uh.
I didn't know teeth could move from here to here
without like being knocked out.
That was stressful, yeah it was really bad.
- So when I was cheerleading in high school
I had this friend, she was like my best friend.
Well she liked a boy, the boy liked me.
And she was mad.
She thought that maybe she could change his mind.
Her idea of doing that was to get a perm
and darken her hair.
'Cause she had light brown hair.
In her head she thought, oh,
I'll just try to look more like Vanessa.
It didn't work.
(laughs) He didn't like her still.
She was on my cheerleading team, she was my base.
And one day we were practicing and I fell.
And I broke my wrist, it hurt so bad.
I was out for the whole year.
And at first I was like, upset, but at the same time,
I was like eh, this happens, this is part of cheerleading.
But when I found out that it might've been deliberate,
that was a whole different story.
She was bragging about it, telling everyone about it.
I dropped Vanessa on purpose 'cause she's a (dog barks).
I didn't even like the guy,
so I told her I don't like him, he's all yours.
So I don't really understand why she was so mad
and hated me so much.
So I approached her about it,
and she said no way.
But I didn't trust her after that
and to this day I don't really know
if it was intentional or not.
- So my first year of cheerleading
was my sophomore year in high school
and we were at cheer camp.
Which happens the summer before,
where you're kind of learning all the new things
for the school year.
We were doing a,
some sort of team building exercise at these camps,
they always do like ice breakers.
So the company that was running our cheer camp
is called the UCA.
And the UCA cheerleader that was with our group said
I need a volunteer.
So I raised my hand thinking,
we're gonna do something fun, who knows.
And she tells me that I'm going to have
to put on all the socks of all of my teammates
on my hands and then continue to layer
every single girls' socks on top like mittens
and perform some sort of relay.
It was hot, we were in a hot gym,
everyone has been working out, has been stunting.
So all the socks were sweaty.
It was so gross, smelled terrible.
Luckily they let me wash my hands after
but it was pretty traumatizing
and I honestly don't know why I agreed to do that.
- We had practice like we always did.
I think this time we were kind of just practicing stunts
to see what would work.
We were trying out new flyers.
So there was a new girl who was gonna be
on top of the stunt.
And I think we were practicing how they would come down
from the stunt.
There's a single.
You throw them up and they spin once
and then they come back down.
Or there's a double where, throw them up,
and they're supposed to like rapidly spin twice
and then come back down.
I think that actually became illegal in competitions
later on because people were getting hurt.
I think we were practicing a double
with this new flyer.
It's important to note that before practice
I told my friend McKayla that she had a perfect nose.
They threw this new flyer up, she went to spin,
and she came down just fine, but when she came down,
she threw her head back.
And my friend McKayla was the back spot
for (laughs) that stunt.
The flyer came down, slammed my friend McKayla in the nose.
All we saw was McKayla go like this,
and like very calmly like walk out
of wherever we were practicing and like to the bathroom.
Yeah, I mean, she broke her nose. (laughs)
There was so much blood.
She was very calm, for the amount of blood,
like she was eerily calm,
but I think she like didn't know what else to do.
For like, I wanna say a week or so after that,
she got a nosebleed like every other day.
She blames me to this day
because I told her she had a perfect nose.
- I was in college and we performed every halftime
at the basketball game.
And I was always in the front,
'cause I was gymnast and a dancer.
And we had this new routine.
I did a lot of choreography for it.
There was actually a guy there that I really liked.
And I was so psyched.
We're in the middle of our routine
and there was a group of girls right in the front,
I knew them, they were on the hip-hop team.
And they were like.
It looked like they were whispering about me.
But I just tried not to care
because I was doing my thing.
My crush is here, so I'm like
I'm just gonna keep dancing.
Turns out I turned around, squat down,
for the next part of the dance.
And I noticed that my boob was out the whole time.
I have no boobs, that's why I didn't feel it.
I just thought everybody was watching
my awesome dance moves.
But yeah that wasn't the case at all,
I was just flashing everyone.
That was at the beginning of my college career,
and for years people were talking about that.
- So we were learning how to stunt.
And we were in an elevator, a half extension,
where two girls are standing face to face as the bases
and they're holding the flyer's feet at about neck level.
So we were learning how to come down from that in a cradle,
which is where you throw the flyer up,
and then both of the bases catch in the arms.
So when this is done correctly,
you are fairly close together.
Throw the girl up, catch, she comes down.
But if you're new and kind of scared like we were,
we were too far apart when we threw her,
and so when her body weight came down,
it brought both of us foreword,
and we kind of had like a kiss of death.
And my teeth, which I had braces at the time,
and her chin collided.
We hit and then it was like,
everyone like kind of backs up,
'cause everyone saw it happen.
And so I'm covering my mouth 'cause like it really hurt
and she's covering like her mouth area.
The cheerleader captain, coach person was like,
okay let me see, and I like moved my hand,
and my teeth were all bloody.
And then here chin had like an indent
from one of my brace brackets.
For probably a few days after that,
we were afraid to do that stunt.
I think that base and I were not a good pair
so we did not stunt together again.
(upbeat guitar music)