Director Joyce Licorish’s Cheer Dad is the kind of story that reminds us love is the fuel families run on, and if you’re part of the cheerleading community, it comes in abundance.
Patrick Riccards (Tim Perez-Ross) is the kind of dad who shows up for his kids, no matter what. When the Riccards family relocates to a new town, his adopted daughter Anna (Joey Victoria Lezama) is lost. She’s already cycled through soccer, horseback riding, taekwondo, and softball without finding her thing, and the move has only made it worse. Then she stumbles onto cheerleading videos online, and everything is clear. She imagines herself on the team, posing in front of the mirror, and announces there’s a tryout. The convincer is that if the team makes it to nationals, they go to Disney World. Anna’s mom, Jennifer (Megan Cleary), makes the terms clear: if you’re in, you’re all in.
Since mom can’t take any time off work, father Patrick is in. He starts driving Anna to practice and takes photos from the sidelines. Before long, Coach Christine (Kat Nagar) takes the unusual step of drafting him as her assistant coach. The Wildcats take to him immediately as his enthusiasm is contagious. But not everything runs smoothly, and I’m not talking about the cheer mom gossip group. Wanting to level up, Anna quickly becomes bored with the repetition of practice, but she has to nail down the fundamentals. Patrick is also getting squeezed from the other direction: his performance at work is slipping, the long hours are putting a strain on his marriage, and his adopted son Mike can’t stop thinking about his biological parents back in Guatemala. Then comes the gut punch: Jennifer’s sister’s wedding falls on the exact same weekend as the team’s first competition.
“Patrick Riccards is the kind of dad who shows up for his kids, no matter what.”
Cheer Dad is based on the award-winning book Dad in a Cheer Bow by Patrick Riccards, a true story about a father who loves his daughter so much that he’s willing to step completely outside his comfort zone. What starts as just showing up for Anna becomes something much bigger. Patrick discovers he can be an example — not just for his daughter and his family, but for the other girls on the team and even in his own professional life.
Now, I’ll be honest — cheerleading was a huge part of my family, so I recognized a lot of what happens in the movie. But I’ll also be the first to admit I never would have had the desire to do what Patrick does…Maybe I should have. The film walks us through an entire cheerleading season with the Riccards family and packs in one lesson after another — lessons about leadership, fundamentals, practice, and the pursuit of excellence. Who knew these lessons could translate to the corporate world? There’s also plenty here about family — specifically about sticking together when times get tough. And then there are quieter, more meaningful lessons about adoption: that whether you were born into a family or chosen into one, the love is the same. The movie stands on all of that positivity.
Cheer Dad is not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but an ambitious low-budget indie. There are issues with sound and lighting, and I’m sure many of the actors came from the local cheer community. But writer-director Joyce Licorish leans into the cast’s enthusiasm and the film’s genuinely heartfelt message. The sincerity of the story ends up carrying more weight than any technical shortcoming.
Licorish keeps Cheer Dad moving with enough heart and enthusiasm to smooth over its rough edges. It’s an honest film, and for this kind of story, that’s more than enough.
"…Who knew these lessons could translate to the corporate world?"
