This is the second part in a two-part series. For part one, please click here.
There’s no sure formula for what makes a video connect with our audience.
Some of them are troubling, like the coach who forces high school cheerleaders into the splits while they sob in agony. Some are uplifting, like the dog who helped save a baby deer from drowning. And some are just unusual, like the Kamloops man who helped fight a grass fire… with his boat.
In each case, you watched. You responded. You shared with your friends.
These are the top five Global News videos of 2017.
The principal and athletic director of a Denver, Colo., high school stepped down following a series of videos showing high school cheerleaders screaming in pain while being pushed into splits during practice.
The videos, which first surfaced this past June, shows cheerleaders repeatedly being pushed into splits while their arms are held up by teammates. In one video, a girl identified as freshman cheerleader Ally Wakefield sobs in pain and repeatedly begs her coach to stop.
“This is a grown man pushing my 13-year-old girl so hard against her will while she’s crying and screaming for him to stop that he’s ripping tissues in her body,” Ally Wakefield’s mother, Kristen Wakefield, said.
Cheerleading coach Ozell Williams was fired from his position in August after having been placed on administrative leave, along with the school’s assistant cheer coach, Principal (first name) Mendelsberg, and two other school officials.
2) Video shows dog rescuing baby deer floating in waters off Long Island
A golden retriever lived up to his breed this past July when the canine plunged into Long Island Sound to save an exhausted baby deer floating in the water.
Mark Freeley was walking with his two dogs when he came across the baby deer floating in the chilly waters off the New York coast.
“Storm just plunged into the water and started swimming out to the fawn, grabbed it by the neck and started swimming to shore,” Freeley told CBS2.
The deer, reported to be covered in ticks and suffering from an eye injury, was transported to an animal care shelter.
3) Quick-thinking B.C. boater sprays water on Kamloops grass fire
A quick-thinking boater found a rather… unique way to fight a grass fire in the Valleyview area in Kamloops this past July.
Koyne Watson and Tasha Hunt say they were boating when they saw black smoke on the Thompson River – and Watson decided to spring into action.
“Koyne decided to make a pass with our jet boat because it has a big rooster tail on the back and he actually hit the bank with the jet stream and put out some of the flame” Hunt told CKNW.
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The long, fast-moving watercraft started circling near the shore, creating large rooster tails in its wake that landed on the flames.
“It could have spread but he nailed it a few times with the spray,” Lorrie Jane Arnott, who observed the firefighting effort, said. “It definitely made a big difference.”
4) Video captures violent road rage incident in Peterborough
Peterborough police say a 74-year-old man was riding his bike this past July when he became involved in an “argument” with another driver as both attempted to make a left turn.
Moments later, video captured by a local business owner shows the cyclist being hit several times by the driver with what police described as a “small club.”
A woman, who asked that her identity be withheld, witnessed the altercation as the driver set upon the cyclist with his club.
“As soon as I saw him with that raised bat in his hand, I was like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God,” said the woman.
Paramedics attended to the cyclist at the scene and he was transported to hospital for treatment of undisclosed injuries. The driver was later arrested and charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
5) Quick-thinking drivers save cyclist from possible bear attack on B.C. highway
A couple of quick-thinking drivers may have saved a cyclist from being attacked by a young grizzly bear near Radium, B.C., this past July.
Robbie Flemming said he was driving from Calgary toward Radium at about 8:30 p.m. on July 14 when he noticed a heavily loaded cyclist slowly making his way up the long highway climb in the same direction.
“All of a sudden, I see a young grizzly jump over the Banff-bound guardrail in front of a tour bus and go loping across the highway,” Flemming said.
Flemming said he slowed down, pulled his truck up beside the cyclist and started to honk the horn, which the cyclist initially ignored.
“Finally, he looked over at me and I said, ‘You’ve got a grizzly bear about 25 feet behind you.’ He looked back and went, ‘Oh!’ and started to pound on the pedals.”
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Honourable mention: Sea lion pulls young girl into water off Steveston Wharf in Richmond, B.C.
A young girl was pulled into the water near Richmond, B.C., by a sea lion this past May in a dramatic scene captured on a video.
The video shows the large marine mammal slowly circling the area before it suddenly lunges from the water, nipping at the girl’s dress and pulling her into the water.
As screams erupt from the crowd, a family member immediately leaps into the water, grabs the child and takes her to safety.
Following the incident, the Steveston Harbour Authority put up signs on the dock that read, “Please do not feed the sea lions.”
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