Former Cowboys cheerleader Chandi Dayle goes from ‘America’s Sweethearts’ to UA sidelines

One of the major stars of the second season of Netflix's "America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders" is from right here in Arizona.

Chandi Dayle is a native of Tucson and graduated from the University of Arizona, where she was captain of their pomline.

And now, she’s back at her alma mater as their assistant coach. Dayle had a six year career with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, or DCC as they’re known.

She was featured on a CMT show about the team, and then stepped into her own as a veteran on Season 2 of “America’s Sweethearts.”

Dayle said when she put on that uniform — complete with Lucchese cowboy boots and tassels — she felt like a superhero.

She joined The Show to talk about her long career with the Cowboys and the full-circle moment she finds herself in now.

Full conversation

CHANDI DAYLE: It feels pretty surreal, I think, just being able to go from not only the U of A as a student and dancer there, going professional and then coming back and just watching the girls and being on the sidelines now. It's almost like I'm a proud mom watching them out there dancing and living their dream.

So it is very fulfilling and very surreal to be on this side of it, and I'm just thankful for that opportunity.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. All right, so we have to talk about "America's Sweethearts," this Netflix docuseries that you were a big part of, especially in the second season. I think this show's popularity kind of exceeded all expectations. Like, this turned into a really big hit, and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders — or DCC — turned into something of a national phenomenon there.

I wonder, though, what it was like to be inside of that experience. Did it change life for you in significant ways? Like, was there life before this show and then life after?

DAYLE: Yes, it changed a lot. I feel like I'm really happy that this Netflix show goes beyond training camp and shows like who we are as humans and what we do and what we go through, not only on the field, but off the field. So, life before and after — I guess if I'm trying to, like, compare it to after filming with CMT and then after Netflix — it has been a little bit crazier.

Kind of crazy how so many people, I guess, watch the show and just know you and can look up to you, and you know that you touch someone out there is kind of crazy, but also really rewarding.

GILGER: Yeah. Yeah. Does that happen to you all the time now? You can't walk around without somebody stopping you?

DAYLE: Yeah, it's kind of crazy. I'm like, I just think of myself as, like, this little weird kind of girl who's a little quirky and who danced on a team, and now I'm like, "Dang, people know my whole life story." Kind of crazy.

GILGER: What I liked a lot about this show, Chandi, was that it does the thing that I really like about a lot of the interviews I get to do, right. Like, it gives you this window into a whole world that I knew nothing about before. This one being cheerleading and dance and DCC and the kind of level of dedication and work and sometimes bodily injury that goes into it for dancers like yourself.

Tell us about that life that you've led. Like, how long have you been dancing?

DAYLE: I've been dancing since I was three, so very long time. I started in ballet, did ballet through my freshman year of high school. Then I switched to performing and pom and jazz. Yeah, it's been crazy. A lot of backaches, neck aches. I don't know if a lot of people know, but I tore my left labrum my last year.

So I'm six months post-surgery from that. So it's a lot of wear and tear on the body, but just like any other athlete, I feel like you're kind of OK doing it because you're like, this is my dream, and you know that it has an expiration date. So you're like, I'm just gonna push through because this is the thing that I've worked my whole life for, and I love it.

And, no matter how bad it hurts, like, I'm gonna go out there and smile because someone else — like, there are hundreds of girls waiting to take my spot, and I just want to soak it up one more time.

GILGER: Yeah. Yeah. Why did you want to become a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader? You said this was your dream, and the show really makes it seem like this particular cheer team for the Dallas Cowboys is, like, the mecca of cheer teams, right?

DAYLE: Oh, yeah. So, I guess when I first started getting into pom and the cool football side of it, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I was like, "I guess I could go professional, like, maybe, whatever." And a recruiter actually from DCC reached out to my college coach at UA and asked if I wanted to try out and I was like, maybe.

Like, it just felt like such a dream. DCC was top tier. And you're like, I don't know, do I want to go and try and put myself through that? Like, I've seen the CMT show. It's kind of crazy.

I was like, you know what? It's gonna be now or never. Like, I'm gonna regret it if I don't try out. So I was like, let me just try out. Let me go all in. And I just kept making it round after round, and then next thing I know, I was in training camp, moving to Texas, and I made the team.

So, it was pretty crazy. It was just kind of like, whoa. A huge whoa.

GILGER: Yeah. Let me ask you about this point in your life now, because one of the things that I think is interesting when I've ever interviewed dancers but athletes, performers in this way, who use their bodies — work is their body — that there's sort of an expiration date.

I mean, how old are you now? And you're kind of retired in a way.

DAYLE: Yeah, I know. I just turned 29 and already had surgery, and I'm retired. It's kind of crazy to think about it. But also, I'm like, well, my body was put through it. Like, I was thinking at physical therapy the other day, just from all the games, like, nothing else — no other appearance or Christmas shows — I've done (AC/DC's "Thunderstruck") 60 times. I'm like, that's a lot to put your body through.

GILGER: That's the most famous dance from the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, where it ends in this crazy split, too, right?

DAYLE: The crazy jump split, which I'm like, so thankful I could do it, but I'm like, OK. I'm happy to say I can retire, and I used to do that, and now it's someone else's turn, and I can watch them shine.

GILGER: So it sounds like you're transitioning well to the new role that you've taken on as an assistant coach and to sort of, like you said, watching from the sidelines, how do you view the rest of your career? Do you want to stay in the coaching realm? Do you feel like that's rewarding in a way?

DAYLE: Yes, I would love to stay in the coaching realm. I know, even looking up to the head coach now, who was my coach in pageants and for pomline, watching her blossom into this amazing coach, like, I want to be that. I want to be her one day, and I strive to be half the woman that she is.

So it's rewarding just being able to learn from her as well.

GILGER: I wonder, part of the thing with athletes, right, is that you're kind of chasing a high all the time after that. Like, you're used to this high level of performance and pressure and adrenaline. Do you miss that, or are you glad to say goodbye to it?

DAYLE: I do miss it a little bit, but also, like, I just remember the first game back, I was on the sidelines watching as a coach for UA. I was like, "oh my gosh, this is so cool." Like, I missed the college atmosphere. I miss how the whole community gets together and, like, cheers on the Arizona Wildcats.

So that gave me, like, a different bit of adrenaline. I'm like, OK, "I want it for these girls, I want it for the team." Like, I want it for them. And so I think it's a little bit different. It's like, I'll always miss the dance side of all that, but I feel like I get it now from being a coach.