Daughters of former Mizzou great share passion, pain in new Netflix cheerleader series

Former Missouri basketball great and NBA player Jon Sundvold shows up in the new Netflix documentary series about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders where he boasts about the “superstar” power of the squad.

He’s a proud dad.

His daughter, Anna Kate Sundvold, was one of the women whom cameras followed as they auditioned for the 2023-24 squad in “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.” The seven-episode series premiered last month.

Anna Kate was eager to follow in her sister’s white-booted footsteps. Caroline Sundvold is a veteran DCC (the shorthand for Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader used by the squad) and also scored camera time.

The series follows the squad from auditions, training camp and game-day performances through the Cowboys’ stunning season-ending loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFL Wild Card Round in January.

The Cowboys gave Emmy-winning director Greg Whiteley and his team (“Cheer,” “Last Chance U”) broad access to the cheerleaders and their longtime director Kelli Finglass, a former Cowboys cheerleader herself.

In nearly seven hours, the show captures the highs — getting fitted for those iconic white cowboy boots, performing with Dolly Parton — and a scary moment following a sexual harassment allegation.

During the season one cheerleader said she was inappropriately touched by a photographer during a home game. Police did not pursue it without video evidence, but the man apparently was banned from AT&T Stadium.

One of the newbies featured, Anna Kate, grew up in Columbia, Missouri, where her parents still live. Jon Sundvold, who grew up in Blue Springs, was a standout shooting guard for the University of Missouri in the early ‘80s before playing in the NBA for Seattle, San Antonio and Miami until 1992.

Anna Kate danced from a young age, traveling to competitions and conventions, and performing at the Columbia Performing Arts Centre. She graduated with honors last year from Texas Christian University — where she cheered — with a degree in business administration.

Caroline was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader from 2018 to 2023, named the Veteran of the Year in her last year. The series shows her recovering from foot surgery and helping Anna Kate through auditions. Caroline has had two surgeries since she retired from the squad.

She is blunt with filmmakers in Episode 3 about the physical toll, especially of the squad’s traditional pregame performances to AC/DC’s heart-pounding “Thunderstruck.”

The women, holding onto each other in a chorus line, jump into the air and land hard in splits on the turf.

Jump splits hurt. One former squad member told filmmakers she’s had 12 orthopedic surgeries in the last six years.

“But it is entertaining. People love jump splits. We can’t not do it.” said Caroline.

Caroline said in the show that she was in a lot of pain at the beginning of her fifth season and a doctor told her she needed an operation.

“But a hip surgery like that is a good three to six months recovery. I was like, ‘I really want to do one more year of cheerleading.’ I just wanted to push through.

“And I tell you, after my fifth year when I woke up from my hip surgery, the doctor looked at me and she (asked) ‘was it worth it?’

“My goal was to finish five seasons. No regrets.”

Caroline is shown in rehab from a second operation on her foot and using a walker to get around her studio apartment, which she shared with Anna Kate during filming.

The foot surgery, “was a little more traumatic,” Caroline said.

“You would think hip surgery would be a little worse. But the foot has so many nerves in it. So from the (end of the season) banquet until now I’ve just been recovering a lot, which has been a bit of a wake-up call.

“I went from wearing the stars on the uniform, dancing at all the games, doing appearances, teaching the kids’ camps to sort of being isolated at home, supporting my sister, getting better.

“But I knew it was coming. I think I just didn’t come to the realization until I had both surgeries done. OK, we’re really doing this.”

Is it a privilege or a job?

The series tackles the controversial question of how much NFL cheerleaders are paid with comments from Cowboys executive vice president and chief brand officer Charlotte Jones, daughter of team owner Jerry Jones.

Interviews with cheerleaders from past decades are shown in which the women talk about the job as more of a privilege than a way to pay the bills.

“I think my game day fee was $35,” said former cheerleader Tina Kalina, whose daughter, Victoria, is shown in the series trying to hold onto her spot on the team. Veterans audition each year.

“These Millennials, X Gen, whatever they’re called, they do look it as a job, where us old-timers look at it as more of a privilege.”

When filmmakers asked Kat Puryear, a 2022 DCC alum, how much she was paid, she danced around the question.

“I would say I’m making, like, a substitute teacher. I would say, like, a Chick-fil-A worker that works full-time,” she said.

Jones didn’t reveal salaries, either.

“There’s a lot of cynicism around pay for NFL cheerleaders. As it should be,” the Cowboys executive said. “They’re not paid a lot. But the facts are is that they actually don’t come here for the money, they come here for something that’s actually bigger than that to them.

“They have a passion for dance. There are not a lot of opportunities in the field of dance to get to perform at an elite level.

“It is about being a part of something bigger than themselves. It is about a sisterhood that they were able to form, about relationships that they have for the rest of their life. They have a chance to feel like they are valued, that they are special and that they are making a difference.

“When the women come here they find their passion and they find their purpose.”

An interview with Jon Sundvold is shown as parents are invited to tour the Dallas Cheerleaders locker room.

And in the end, Anna Kate made the squad.

“We come down and you meet these girls and go, wow, they just have superstar tendencies that that organization looks for when they’re building a team,” Sundvold said.