Cameron Lowe in front, Hailey Chalmers behind her...which will definitely irk Rhonda.
Lethal Soccer Mom (also known as Sidelined and A Deadly Vendetta) is a 2018 Lifetime Movie of the Week. It stars Sarah Grey as the main protagonist, and Christina Cox as the titular villain.
Cameron Lowe (Grey) was formerly the captain of her high school's soccer team, but has been transferred to Rawley High School by her mother to get an even better education. Immediately, she is accosted by Rhonda Chalmers (Cox), her new school's psychology teacher and the coach for the local team. At first, it seems that Rhonda is being tough-but-fair, encouraging Cameron to work on her academics instead of relying solely on her athletic skills. But, it soon becomes apparent that "fair" is something Rhonda most definitely isn't. Having identified Cameron as a risk to her own daughter's potential soccer stardom, Rhonda is willing to do anything to keep Cameron down, including lying, cheating...and assault.
Tropes:
- A Deadly Affair: Rhonda sleeps with her own daughter's boyfriend in order to convince him to assault Cameron. When he wants to come clean later on, Rhonda hits him with a car, though he survives.
- Batter Up!: In the climax, when Cameron still insists on playing in a big game despite injuries from Rhonda's other schemes, Rhonda chases her through the locker rooms with an aluminum bat.
- Cat Fight: Cameron and Hailey have a fight in the school cafeteria.
- Control Freak: Rhonda is a tough soccer coach, but also regulates every part of her daughter's life, even down to what she eats, to push her into being a soccer star.
- Gaslighting: Rhonda spends the whole movie sabotaging Cameron in one way or another, then whenever Cameron and her mother try to push back or call Rhonda out for her misdeeds, Rhonda tries to act like nothing happened and paints herself as the victim.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Rhonda's daughter Hailey seems to be in cahoots with her mother in trying to sabotage Cameron at first, but the two girls seem to start bonding when they're forced to clean the boys' restroom together after their fight. But, Rhonda leans hard on Hailey, and coupled with the news that Cameron made out with Paul, she seems to turn on Cameron again. However, Hailey is also getting fed up with Rhonda's Control Freak parenting, so she starts disobeying Rhonda. Eventually, Hailey injures Cameron on Rhonda's orders. But finally, she ends up coming to Cameron's rescue when Rhonda goes after her with a baseball bat.
- Hot-Blooded: Cameron is a very temperamental person who reacts strongly when she's been wronged, which leads her to pick up the Idiot Ball and make a couple of dumb unforced errors in the story (picking a fight with Hailey, breaking in to Rhonda's classroom to find proof that Rhonda forged her failing chemistry test).
- Idiot Ball: It seems like there would've been enough past homework assignments that the chemistry teacher would be familiar with Cameron's handwriting and could recognize when Rhonda replaced her exam.
- Irony: The mentally unbalanced Rhonda is the school's psychology teacher.
- My Beloved Smother: Hailey seemingly has no life of her own outside of what Rhonda wants her to do.
- "Not So Different" Remark: When they talk while cleaning the boys' room together as punishment, Cameron and Hailey realize that they both have pushy mothers who they constantly try to please.
- Red Herring: Cameron originally suspects that it's Hailey that messed with her tests and got her boyfriend to assault her, since she's the one directly benefiting from her failure. It's only after finding out that Rhonda is Vicariously Ambitious that she learns the truth.
- Spoiler Title: Averted with its alternate titles, but any pretense that Hailey is the one trying to sabotage Cameron is dropped by the title fingering her mother Rhonda.
- Stage Mom:
- Rhonda Chalmers is a villainous, "Soccer Mom" version. It doesn't help that she's also the team's coach.
- Cameron's mom Kate also counts, but she's presented as a positive contrast to Rhonda, being motivated by a desire to help her daughter achieve her full potential, rather than living vicariously through her.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: This sort of feels like the Tonya Harding scandal transferred to a high school soccer setting (with Hailey as Tonya Harding and Cameron as Nancy Kerrigan).
- Vicariously Ambitious: Rhonda was once a promising soccer star until she became pregnant with Hailey. Now she'll do anything to make sure Hailey is in the soccer spotlight, even if it includes hospitalizing her best player Cameron.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Rhonda Chalmers is psychotic, violent, and even a sexual predator, but as the coach of a four-time state champion soccer team, she's idolized at the school.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: We see Cameron throw up a bit on the field after Rhonda spikes her water bottle to make her sick.
- The Wildcats: Guess what Rawley High's nickname is? It even becomes a plot point, after Cameron gets pushed down the stairs by someone wearing the school's Wildcat mascot costume.
