Friday Night Pyramids

For most of us, cheerleading is a subject of fleeting fascination as we channel surf past ESPN2 and pause for a few seconds to watch cute girls in short, pleated skirts fly high in the sky and spell out the name of their school. But there's another, competitive side to cheerleading that barely scrapes the public consciousness. In Cheer!: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders, Kate Torgovnick follows three teams as they prepare for their one shining moment—and a shot at a national championship in college cheerleading.