DCC Director Addresses Choreographer Shelly’s Daughter Dayton Getting Cut (Exclusive)

As Kelli Finglass and Judy Trammell return to Netflix for a second season of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, the duo is revealing where things stand with the team’s associate choreographer, Shelly Bramhall, and her daughter, Dayton.

Shelly, a former cheerleader who has been part of the team’s staff for decades, and Dayton faced an emotional journey in the new episodes of the hit docuseries when the DCC squad hopeful was cut from the team for a second time following training camp.

Dayton was previously seen trying out for a spot on Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team when she was just 19 years old.

While the rejection was hard to face for both Dayton and Shelly, who admittedly had a tough time following the first cut, Finglass, 60, tells PEOPLE that her and Trammell, 67, still have a wonderful relationship with them both.

“Dayton was in my daughter’s wedding,” Finglass reveals. The DCC director’s daughter, Samantha Finglass McKean, married her husband in June 2024.

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“You feel for your friends,” says Trammell. “I mean, Shelly’s definitely a good friend of ours besides a coworker, so we do feel for her and how she struggled with this.”

And Dayton still has her eyes on the prize, says Finglass. “She’s in the trial process now for another year, and we’ll wish her the best,” the director reveals.

Still, Finglass, known for her intensity with the team, says that “it’s going to be very competitive this year” as she and Trammell select the next DCC team.

Both Finglass and Trammell say season 2 of America’s Sweethearts is more emotional than its first. “I noticed that I’m crying right off the bat,” Finglass shares, adding, “And then I watched a few episodes last night and just noticed it more emotional for me this year.”

For Trammell, she wasn’t sure how director Greg Whiteley would make the second season “different” than the first. “I think that Greg Whiteley did a great job with telling stories because at the beginning I was thinking, how can it be different? But every year it’s a new group of girls and they all come with new stories and I think he told them very well,” she tells PEOPLE.

Watching back some of the more emotional scenes they lived through has helped Finglass and Trammell to improve in their own roles, the ladies share. “We watch them as a fan and as critics of ourselves. I find myself trying to see if there’s something I could have done better or should have done better,” Finglass explains.

The second season of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is now streaming on Netflix.