Michelle Khare's Ten-Day Attempt to Make the University of Kentucky Cheer Team
Michelle Khare
Michelle Khare says she had wanted to try cheerleading since childhood but never let herself, because of the physical risk. In this episode she finally tries. After ten days of training, she enters the University of Kentucky's three-day cheer tryouts. The rule she sets for herself is simple: if she is cut at any round, the video ends there, and so does her childhood dream. She also says clearly that she has no real plans to become a college cheerleader. The point is to experience a sport she has always felt drawn to. She adds that even if she made it through every round, she would not take a spot from an actual student.
Why Kentucky, and What Cheer Demands
Khare picked the program she calls a powerhouse. In the video, Kentucky is described as a cheerleading dynasty that has won 24 national championships in 35 years. One of her coaches puts it this way: "if you know cheerleading, you know Kentucky," the "end-all be-all of college cheerleading."
To prepare, she brought in two world silver medalists for a ten-day crash course. Their first lesson was that cheerleading is "three sports all in one":
- Tumbling, which resembles gymnastics.
- Dancing.
- Something close to power lifting: bases throwing people above their heads while keeping them safe.
They also stress that all of it has to look sharp and clean and be done with a smile. Facial expressions are part of the performance, and you never show that you're "dying inside."
The first check of her level was a toe touch. She already knew the term and showed her own version, and one coach said they were impressed. Other early lessons were small and practical. Proper cheer shoes have notches that help with grip, which she found "so helpful." Some drills exist only to teach flyers how to hold positions "without killing the boy underneath them." The coaches explained that stunts happen in milliseconds, too fast to think through. That is why they rely on repetition until a skill becomes like riding a bike.
The Fight Song and the Elite Stunt
Two requirements shaped most of the training. The first was Kentucky's fight song. Khare's coaches told her it matters a great deal because the squad performs it at every game and every school event. In their view, cheer is not just skills. It is "being able to command a stadium to look at you" and get it fired up.
The second was an elite stunt, which usually includes some kind of flip. The coaches noted that most cheerleaders don't attempt elite stunts until they have at least seven years of experience. Practice was rough. The footage shows repeated corrections about where her arms should go ("reach, reach, reach… where did our arms go?") and at least one fall. Six hours before her flight to Kentucky, Khare admitted they had not perfected everything.
Her coaches named the mental side as the biggest obstacle. One said the hardest part would be "Michelle getting out of her head": she just needed to go out, have fun, and do what she had been taught for ten days. Khare framed the problem differently. Landing a skill once in practice is fine, but she would have to land it consistently, under pressure, in front of a crowd and judges. If she failed round one, she would get to do nothing else.
Coach Ryan Martin O'Connor and the Program's Standards
In Kentucky, Khare worked through the tryout weekend with Daniel Fleharty. He described her as new to skills the other athletes had been building "basically since they've been able to walk," and warned she could very well be cut if she didn't give it everything.
Head coach Ryan Martin O'Connor is introduced as a five-time state champion who won a national championship as a cheerleader at Alabama and is a three-time gold medalist. Her standards are called "the gold standard." She opened tryouts by telling athletes it would not all be fun or easy, but that being part of something meaningful requires going through that. "If you're afraid of failure, you don't deserve success," she said. Others describe her as someone who "doesn't take no for an answer."
Later, O'Connor explained the pressure she was under. Kentucky is a 24-time national champion, and the team was unsuccessful the previous year. She said it is hard to read what people say about you when they don't know you, and joked that her husband, and sometimes her mom, want to beat people up over it. Her answer: "We just got to win, and then everyone will shut up."
Making a Friend, and the Netflix "Cheer" Connection
Khare compared the start of tryouts to high school lunch, where you have to pick a table, except everyone is a cheerleader and "really, really cool." She set herself the side challenge of making a friend and asked a group if she could stretch with them.
Fleharty connected this to the sport itself. Cheerleading is all about trust, he said. He and Khare had built that bond over ten days, and now she had to build the same trust with strangers. One athlete she met, Maddie, had cheered with Fleharty at Navarro. Khare had also gone to Navarro to prepare for Kentucky.
That led to the Netflix documentary series Cheer, which featured Navarro's 14-time national championship junior college team. Fleharty said that on the show he wasn't really known as Daniel but as "Gabi's stunt partner," "the guy who threw Gabi." He credited the series with showing the athleticism of cheer: hours of dedication, "blood, sweat and tears," and multiple injuries. In his view, people tend to picture sideline or Dallas Cowboys–style cheerleaders, an "accessory to football games," when the sport is much more.
The Tryout Format
Making the team required passing three days, each testing different skills:
- Round one: tumbling (standing and running) and the fight song.
- Round two: stretch stunts.
- Round three: an elite stunt performed in front of a live crowd.
Day One: Tumbling, the Fight Song, and a Public Reprimand
Athletes went four at a time. Before Khare's group, O'Connor explained why the fight song carries so much weight. The squad performs it at appearances, alumni events and games, far more often than any advanced skill. Athletes have to be ambassadors for the university, not just skilled tumblers.
She then singled out candidate No. 17. She was "very disappointed" in that athlete's fight song, which "should have been freaking perfect." She sent them away to work on it with their partner and told them to come back and ask, or "beg," for another chance.
Khare wore No. 24. During her tumbling, a coach remarked, "I wish everybody smiled like she did." The fight song and extensions went well. Fleharty called the extensions "money" and said she "sprung off the floor" when he wasn't expecting it. He explained that her energy affected the room: in cheer, if you yell, the crowd yells back, and if you're quiet, they stay quiet.
Afterward, O'Connor told the whole group she was disappointed in the fight song overall. It had been on the website and in the tryout email, so anyone who wasn't ready had shown that the program "weren't worth your time." She said she evaluates life skills as well as athletic ones, including whether athletes act like college-aged adults.
The Fitness Assessment and the First Cut
Day one ended with a fitness assessment run by the team's strength coach, covering things like jumps and rep counts, before any cut was made. O'Connor said physical fitness is a huge part of what they do because "we are athletes." What she wanted to see was effort: who would take every part of tryouts seriously.
Khare said her vertical jump was "so bad." A coach responded that the assessment gives "black and white answers" on things the staff was already questioning. O'Connor said those not invited back were appreciated, but the program can't "lower the program standards to accommodate everybody." Athletes should be willing to rise to them. That night the list was posted, and No. 24 had made the cut.
Day Two: Learning a Stretch Stunt and a Full Down
Day two focused on stretch stunts: a skill showing that the flyer can pull a stretch and the base can hold it, followed by a dismount. Khare had never done one. Fleharty told her they would move fast because she was a quick learner.
The practice clips show specific corrections. On one attempt she reached for the stretch instead of breaking into it and buckled. The fix was to keep her hand at her side and slide it up her leg to her foot. Fleharty also warned about the catch: pull in close, because "the second you go elbows out, our noses are broken."
In the audition, she hit the stretch and also landed a full down, a twisting dismount. Fleharty said he had told her she didn't need to try a double down; a full down would be enough, and she learned it in one day. One judge said they were "putting hearts in my notes" for it.
The Surprise Cheer and the Weight of Day Three
O'Connor then added a twist. Athletes had 15 minutes to learn an entirely new cheer from scratch, to be performed at the next day's audition in front of hundreds of people. She tied this to adaptability. Cheerleaders don't control what happens in a basketball or football game, so they have to listen and be ready for anything. Khare made mistakes in the rehearsal, such as feet too far apart and a rushed extension, and was told to breathe and not stress. She said the volume of new information left her feeling fatigued going into the final day.
O'Connor told the group they had been on the news the night before, because this was the first open tryout in three years. There was pressure, she said, and they should be excited about it: they would get to show off in front of a crowd at Memorial. Khare made the second cut.
Day Three: The Elite Stunt in Front of a Crowd
On the final day, the arena filled. Fleharty said this was where Khare would feel the real pressure, and the result would depend on how she compared with the other athletes. O'Connor told the finalists she was proud of them and admitted she was emotional herself: "the little girl in me that grew up here" was humbled and overwhelmed to be there.
Khare's elite stunt began with a front handspring into the stunt, and she said they could not get it consistent. Fleharty's corrections were concrete. She needed to keep squeezing when he grabbed her, because when she stopped, he couldn't throw through and she "flopped over." He also told her to keep shooting back out of the handstand, because stopping there would collapse her arms. She said she wasn't confident and called it "a really dangerous thing to do."
In front of the crowd, she performed the routine, including a tumbling sequence that surprised the coaches. One reacted, "she learned that in three days?" Fleharty said she kept doing things without telling him and he was "just as surprised as everybody else." The front handspring entry into the pull stretch was the hardest part, and they hit it. Afterward, Khare said they had only landed it about three times before. A coach acknowledged it "wasn't the best," but Fleharty "still stayed up there."
Khare described the moment as "a big exhale." She said she expected to look bad and probably did, but felt a huge release at having done it and learned so much. Fleharty told her the crowd, the team, he himself and the coaches all loved her, and thanked her for choosing Kentucky.
The Verdict
The coaches announced the Blue Squad, the top squad that every athlete hoped to make, followed by the White Squad, by tryout number. No. 24 was not called. O'Connor then brought Khare forward and said she had really impressed them. She said the team could learn a lot from Khare's confidence, and that her performance scores were closer than the staff expected going in.
The deciding factor was skill, especially tumbling. O'Connor said it is hard to learn to flip your body if you haven't been doing it, and that the squad does a standing tuck in its fight song, including in the fourth quarter and in cold-weather warm-ups. "I just don't think that we're there yet," she said, and told Khare she would not be part of the team.
Khare accepted the decision easily, saying she would leave it to the professionals. She said she had known she wouldn't make the team. What overwhelmed her was having fulfilled a childhood dream. She wasn't skilled enough to pass all three days, but she did get to feel part of the team, even if only briefly.
Cheerleading is the pinnacle of sport meets performance.
Growing up, I had always wanted to pursue cheer, but because of the physical risk, I never allowed myself to try until now.
So this week, I'm going to step out onto the mat to fulfill one of my lifelong dreams of auditioning for one of the top cheer teams in the US. Because if I don't, I'll always be wondering, what if?
So here's how this episode is going to work. Ten days from today, I am going to try out for the University of Kentucky's actual cheer team. And in order to make the team, I'm gonna have to pass through three rounds of tryouts. If I mess up, if I get cut, the video ends, and so does my childhood dream of being a cheerleader. So because I'm a Leo, I've enlisted two world silver medalists to give me my best shot.
Thank you both so much for being here with me pretty last minute, because in ten days, I'm gonna be trying out for the University of Kentucky.
The University of Kentucky is what I would consider a powerhouse. For decades, UK has been a cheerleading dynasty, winning 24 national championships in 35 years. Michelle should be very nervous to perform next to some of the best cheerleaders in the country.
I kind of feel like I know where you are, but let's see where you are. So a toe touch, you said you knew that word? Yeah. Okay, you want to show me what you're— My version? Yeah. You're interested? Okay. Five, six, seven, eight. Five, six, seven, eight. Okay.
That was really good. I was actually really impressed. I have no idea what it looked like.
Everything we do is clean, right? Sharp and clean, and facials, as long as you're not like... Even when you're dying inside, you don't show that.
Cheerleading is three sports all in one. We have the tumbling, which is like gymnastics. One, three. Did you die? We have the dancing. We also have powerlifting.
What is this? This is how we teach our flyers to hold their positions without killing the boy underneath them. These boys and girls are tossing humans above their heads while keeping them safe, and you have to do it all with a smile on your face.
We gotta get you out of those old shoes and into some cheerleading shoes. Whoa. So you can get that little notches. That is so helpful. One, two. All right, one second, balls.
All this is happening in milliseconds, and you don't really have time to almost think about it, which is why we do repetition over and over, so that way it becomes more of riding a bike.
Sorry, sorry. I was like, oh, she was a full weight. She said, no, we're elite now. We're elite.
And in case you guys are curious, the exact program I used to improve my flexibility during this challenge is available on my fitness app, MKfit. The link is in the description if you're interested.
So for the tryouts next week, I have to learn the University of Kentucky's fight song. Show me, let's see it. There's a fancy— It is. Oh, I can pray. Oh, wait, no, no, no, no, that's the beginning.
Being able to do the fight song is extremely important. This is something that they're doing every single game, every single event at the school. This is a really big dance for that school.
Hit one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, down eight. Kick one, two.
Cheerleading isn't just the skills. It's being able to command a stadium to look at you and just want to get pumped up. Go Cats! Go Cats! Go Cats!
We're gonna try to run it with the stunts. Okay. Michelle's gonna try an elite stunt. This normally includes some sort of flip. Reach, reach, reach. No, where did our arms go? Reach. Yes, okay. Reach, pull. Yes. Okay, okay, okay. We're getting closer. That's good.
Most cheerleaders don't try elite stunts until they've at least had seven years of cheering underneath their belt.
I leave for Kentucky in six hours, and we have not perfected everything. Oh my God, my bad, my bad. Here you go. You got it.
If you're thinking too much about the skills, kind of just do it. The hardest part of this challenge is going to be Michelle getting out of her head. It's going to be just going out there and having a good time and performing and doing what she's been taught for ten days.
Let's go, Big Blue! Even if I hit it just once in practice, that's great, but I have to be able to hit it consistently under pressure, in front of a crowd, while people are judging me. If I don't pass round one, I don't get to do anything else, and the video's over.
If you know cheerleading, you know Kentucky. Kentucky is the end-all, be-all of college cheerleading.
And first place national champions, the University of Kentucky Wildcats!
I will be working with Michelle over the course of these tryout weekends. Michelle is new to the skills that these athletes have been developing basically since they've been able to walk. Michelle's gonna really have to give it her all, or else she could very well get cut.
Kaylin, come on up. Kaylin's number six. Good luck. Olivia, perfect, you're number seven. Come on in. Hello. Michelle, how are you? Excited. Michelle is number 24. There you go. Good luck.
Coach Ryan's standards are what's called the gold standard. If you're afraid of failure, you don't deserve success. There's my Post-it.
Coach Ryan Martin O’Connor, five-time state champion, won a national championship at Alabama as a cheerleader, three-time gold medalist. This Kentucky program is in great hands with Coach Ryan.
I'm not going to stand up here and tell you it's all going to be fun and it's all going to be easy. Even this weekend's not all going to be fun and easy. But again, to be a part of something meaningful, you have to go through that.
She doesn't take no for an answer. You're not going to be a mediocre athlete. You are going to be the best of the best.
I don't have any friends. I have to go make friends. This is like high school lunch where you have to pick a table, except everyone is a cheerleader and really, really cool. I'm going to make a friend now. I am challenging myself to make a friend. Hey, can I stretch with you guys?
Cheerleading is all about trust. The past ten days with Michelle, we've built that bond and that trust, and now she has to go and create this same bond and same trust with somebody that she doesn't know.
Maddie, Daniel was saying y'all cheered together at Navarro. Yes. That's so cool. Together. I just went to Navarro to help me prepare for Kentucky.
The world is still buzzing months after Netflix released the documentary series Cheer. It's a series that featured the 14-time national championship team from Navarro Junior College.
Being on Cheer for me was a little different. I wasn't really known as Daniel. I was known as Gabi's stunt partner. I was the guy who threw Gabi.
Cheer, as a show, it really showcased the athleticism of cheerleading. It takes hours and hours of dedication, blood, sweat, and tears, multiple injuries, and it just really showed how hard cheerleading really is.
People just think of high school sideline cheerleaders, or the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. It's just an accessory to football games and stuff, but it's just so much happier.
So in order to make the team, I will have to pass through three days of tryouts, demonstrating different skills each day. Round one: tumbling and fight song. Round two: stretch stunts. And round three: performing an elite stunt in front of a live crowd.
And to be totally clear, I do not have actual aspirations to become a cheerleader, but I did want to use this opportunity to experience a sport I have always felt deeply drawn to. And in order to make sure I don't squander this opportunity, I have to make sure I don't get cut.
We will start with girls first today, and we will go four at a time. Standing tumbling, running tumbling, fight song. Let's do this. Let's get started.
Wow, that looks so good. He's been cheering since he was like eight years old.
All right, if we can get girls one, two, three, and four on the mat. Girls one, two, three, and four. Here we go. Number one, standing tumbling.
Wow. Fake it till you make it. You land it and just hit the crowd instantly. You guys can go ahead and take the mat with your fight song partners.
I need to see that you can do the fight song at appearances, at alumni events, at games. That's fantastic that you can do all these other skills, but you have to be able to be an ambassador for our university. So you're going to do that fight song way more than you're going to do that handspring double up.
All right, thank you guys. Could not imagine putting that out there at anything, in front of anybody. Good God. Seventeen, come here, please. I'm very disappointed in your fight song. The fight song should have been freaking perfect. The stunt should be perfect. So what I want to see from you right now is you take your butt over there and you work on that fight song, and you come ask me to show it to me again. Can I have another chance? You beg me for another chance. Get your partner and go fix it. Thank you.
Being the head coach at the University of Kentucky is a huge amount of pressure because we're 24-time national champions, and because we were unsuccessful this past year. It's hard to read things that people say about you without knowing you. We just gotta win, and then everyone will shut up. My husband wants to beat up a lot of people. Sometimes so does my mom. It's okay.
All right, you're about to go on. I'm going with you guys. Are you all ready? I'm excited. Big smiles, big energy. Yeah, we got this.
All right, 21, 22, 23, 24. Let's go, Wildcats! Yeah. Twenty-three, you're good. Standing. Twenty-four.
I wish everybody smiled like she did. That was awesome. Now time for the fight song. You're not done, you're not done.
All right, you guys can go ahead and take the mat for fight song. Let's go, UK! Come on, Big Blue! She's awesome. That's what I'm talking about. Here we go, fight song.
All right, let's do the extension. We got it. Let's go, Big Blue! Hey, you got this.
Still smiling and waving. That was so funny. I know, you killed the fight song too. So funny, I double-checked after. I was like, did she just kill that? You're just so good out there, and the extensions were money. You sprung off the floor. I wasn't even expecting it. You just, boom, off the floor. It's game time, dude. That's exciting, not nervous.
Yeah, everybody's cheering, because the thing about cheerleaders is, you cheer, they're gonna cheer too. You're quiet, they're gonna be quiet. So you went out there, as soon as you started yelling, they were like, okay, that's good.
I'm gonna be honest, I was disappointed in fight song today. It was on the website. I sent a tryout email. You knew that you were going to have to do this fight song. If you didn't, you showed me that we weren't worth your time. And why would I want you on my college team if you can't act like a college-aged adult? It's not just the skills that you do in front of me. It's the life skills that I need to see too for you to be a part of this team.
When we come back, Coach Strobis is going to be here, our strength coach, and we are doing our fitness assessment. And we will make a cut after the fitness assessment.
You're going to step on, arms start up, big jump, landing with the legs bent. 24.5. 24.9. Good job. Ready when you are. 16.8.
Physical fitness is important. It's a huge part of what we do. We are athletes. Forty-four, forty-five. More reps.
I really wanted to see effort. That's what I was looking for, is who's going to take this seriously? Who's going to take every part of tryouts seriously? Those are the people that I want.
My vertical jump was so bad. I just think that this gives us some black-and-white answers on things that you were already questioning. Is that what I think it is? Yes, it is.
We are going to post a cut tonight. If you are not invited back tomorrow, again, we appreciate what you did here, but we can't lower the program standards to accommodate everybody. You should be willing to rise to the standards that we have set. Cats on three. Say it loud, say it proud. One, two, three. Thank you.
End of day one tryouts. I'm about to go see if I made the cut. Even if I make it all the way through to the end, do not worry, I am not taking any spots from actual students who want to be on the cheer team. I made it! Twenty-four.
And even though I made the cut, headed into day two, I started to feel a little nervous because I noticed that some of you are not subscribed. So please help us get to three million by subscribing.
All right, guys, go ahead and start clearing the floor. Clear the floor. Let's go.
We are going stretch stunts. It can be a toss stretch, hand stretch, double up to stretch, a rewind stretch, anything showcasing that the girl is able to pull stretch and the guy is able to hold stretch with a dismount.
I know you haven't done it before, but we're going to move fast. You're a quick learner, so we're just going to get you ready for it. You ready? Yeah. All right, let's do it. Okay, one, two. Oh. All right, pull stretch. Good, pop off.
You went to reach for the stretch instead of bringing it. Yeah, buckled. Keep that hand at your side and slide it up your leg. Yeah, just slide it up to the foot. Okay. All right, stretch. Good. You ready? Yep. One, two, one. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about! Let's go!
I want you to lift and close to this pocket. The second you go elbows out, our noses are broken. Okay, one, two. Wait, okay. Wait, I'm shook. Hold on. I'm shook. They're not even gonna see it coming. Yeah.
Let's do it. Come on, 24 and 25. Let's go, Wildcats! Come on, UK! Look at her. She is all ready. One, two. Look at that smile.
All right, pull stretch. You got this. You ready? One, two. Oh! She learned a full down. Let's go, UK!
I'm putting hearts in my notes for that one. I told her she didn't have to attempt a double down. I was like, if you could get a full down. And she learned a full down in one day.
After surprising the coaches with my stretch stunt, Coach Ryan decided to surprise us. We were told we now had just 15 minutes to learn a completely new cheer from scratch to be performed at tomorrow's audition in front of hundreds of people. So you'll start to go...
I think one skill cheerleaders really need to have is the ability to be adaptable. Obviously, we don't control what's going on in the basketball game or the football game, and so we have to be listening and be ready for anything.
One, two, three, four. Kentucky, let's hear you yell, go Blue! Oh, sorry, sorry, my feet were way too far apart. You're just rushing the extension. Kentucky, let's hear you yell, go— Breathe. Don't stress this.
With all of this new information being thrown at me, I definitely started to feel fatigued headed into day three.
Just reminding you that you were on the news last night telling the public that this was happening. First open tryout in three years. Pressure.
There is pressure, and you should be excited about the pressure. If you want to be a part of this program, you should be excited that you get to show off in front of a crowd. You get to do this tomorrow. You get to do this in front of Memorial. It's gonna be fun. Cats on three. Say it loud, say it proud. One, two, three.
And while day two was challenging, I managed to make the cut, giving me the opportunity to live out my dream for just one more day.
All right, guys, how are you all doing?
Day three is the big day. Michelle is gonna arrive here, and the whole arena here is gonna be full. This is where you showcase everything you've been working on. She's really gonna see what it's like to fight that battle and get that sense of pressure on her. It's going to come down to how well she does compared to these other athletes.
I am proud of you guys that you've made it this far. I'm excited for you that you get to do this. I'm honestly excited for me, I'm not even going to lie. Just the little girl in me that grew up here is honestly really humbled and overwhelmed to be here today. Let's do this, guys. Good luck today. Good luck.
You're gonna do... What number are you? I'm 14. Twenty-four at the end. That's your last. Oh my gosh.
All right, first up, we've got male number one.
Now the coaches, they're watching for flaws. They're watching to see if you've improved from day one. Last day.
That might be the best Kentucky we've heard all day. She could have done a little more. Yeah, but she was loud. Smack.
To perform an elite stunt, I'm trying to do a front handspring up, and we cannot get it to be consistent.
Just squeeze a little bit more when I grab you. You're coming in good. When I'm going to lift you, the squeezing is stopping. And then I can't throw through. I'm just throwing, and you're just flopping over. Got it.
You got it, girl. Come on, this is easy. Okay, okay. Pop off.
Oh my God. Okay, we're getting better. It's getting better.
I'm definitely not confident about it right now, and this is a really dangerous thing to do.
Come on, Michelle, you got this. You got it. Push! Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right, make sure you push them back.
If you stop in that handstand, it's going to cause your arms again, so make sure you're shooting back. I want you to relax till we go. All right? Okay. Don't overdo it.
Number 24. All right, let's get it. Let's go, Daniel. Let's go, Michelle.
I think she starts ready.
She's got great energy. Yeah. Can I be ready, 24?
What? She learned that in three days? What? Because she didn't do that thing. She's never done two back and forth. No, Daniel said she had never done—she's never done before. She's committed. She keeps doing stuff and doesn't tell me she's doing it. I'm joking. I'm just as surprised as everybody else is.
24! Hey, let's go! Come on. Hope someone in the crowd jumped for Michelle. They love him. Go, Michelle! Push!
That's what I'm talking about, though. This is fun. Can I be ready, 24? Good front hand. Relax. Okay.
Okay, whenever you're ready, we're gonna do it. Okay, let's do it. Come on.
There you go. All right, pull stretch. You ready? Yeah. One, two. Hit the U. Okay. Let's go, Wildcats! Good job.
How was that? Oh my God, we did it. I was so scared. We only hit it three times before.
Hey, it all matters what you do out here, right? Even though it wasn't the best, you still stayed up there.
Thank you guys so much for coming. We're gonna take about 45 minutes to an hour, and then we will announce our teams. Thank you.
I just feel like a big exhale. I literally thought I was just going to come here and look so bad, and I probably did, but I literally just feel this huge release of, oh my God, I did it, and I learned so much.
Every stunt or tumbling pass, you're like, okay, as loud as you can, you have to distract me from what they just saw. I'm gonna start doing that.
You were a cheerleader. The crowd loved you. The team loved you. I loved you. Coaches loved you. So this was a blessing to have you, and we're so grateful that you chose Kentucky to come work with us.
So your hope is to make Blue Squad? Yes, yes. That's everybody's hope, of course. Yeah. Yeah.
All right, first I just want to get started by thanking everybody who came out today. Let's hear it one more time for everybody who went through this process.
We are gonna go ahead and start with our Blue Squad females first. First up, number one, Maddie Hayes. Number three. Number fourteen. Number eleven. Number three. And our last guy on the Blue Squad today, number thirteen.
Guys for the White Squad, first up, number 23. Number eighteen. Number ten. Number twenty. Number fifteen. Number twenty-two. And last, we have number twelve.
Number 24, please come forward. You really impressed us. I think our team can learn an awful lot from your confidence, and I think your performance scores actually had you very close, closer than we, I think, thought going into this. But obviously, just with the skills, I mean, the tumbling is—it's hard to learn to flip your body if you haven't been doing it. We do a standing tuck in our fight song. That's something that we're doing in the fourth quarter, in warm-ups, when it's cold. I just don't think that we're there yet, but just definitely wanted to take the time to say thank you so much for doing this, and you did impress us. But you will not be able to be a part of this team.
That's okay. I'm gonna leave it to the professionals.
Y'all, I knew I wasn't gonna make the team. I was just genuinely overwhelmed at the thought of having fulfilled one of my childhood dreams. And though I wasn't skilled enough to pass all three days, I did get to feel like I was part of the team, even if it was just for a short while.
And as mentioned before, if you are interested in the flexibility program that I followed to help me prepare for this episode, it's all linked below in my app, MK Fit, where you can also find all of my nutrition guides, favorite recipes, and best practices for my health and fitness. So if you want guidance on your own journey, check out the link below.
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