You’d think that with the name of the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders that their squad would be filled with tall, gorgeous Nordic types.   You know, blonde and beautiful.  I am sure that the MVC have their fair share of drop dead gorgeous blondes, but for this convention they brought a whole squad of drop dead gorgeous brunettes.  Their squad definitely demands your attention and one (of the many MVC) that caught my eye was 5th year Vikings Cheerleader Bailey, a 2011 P-R-O Convention All Star.

Prior to the start of the second day of the P-R-O Convention the Jacksonville Axe Maidens were kind enough to participate in a photo shoot in the pool area of the Sheraton Hotel.

Axe Maidens

Alyssa

Lindsay

Sarah T.

Shannon

[Axe Maidens Gallery]

[Jacksonville Axe Maidens]

I’ve only been to two P-R-O Conventions, but one thing is quite obvious to me…and that is that the squads have carved out their territory on the dance floor because the Texans, Colts and Washington Redskins Cheerleaders were in the front, in the same spot as last year.   That’s cool…makes it easy for me to shoot them.  And I did take quite a lot of photos of these squads.  And one cheerleader that I took a fair amount of photographs of, was Washington Redskins Cheerleader Toccara.  I photographed her last year and one thing I remembered was that she was keenly aware when the camera was on her and delivered compelling looks.  You know, that’s one of the qualities of the best cheerleaders…when the camera is on them, they turn it on.  Even in a dance convention, while learning a routine, Toccara plays to the camera.   If you are a cheerleader, always play to the camera.  So for that reason, Toccara is a 2011 P-R-O Convention All Star.

I think that a dance team takes on the personality of it’s director.  And Denise Garvey, the Director of the NY Jets Flight Crew Cheerleaders, always struck me as being elegant in a cosmopolitan sort of way.  And I think that her squad reflects that New York sense of sophistication…if you can say that about a dance team.  So for this reason, the New York Jets Flight Crew Cheerleaders are 2011 P-R-O Convention all stars.

One of the main reasons why I like going to P-R-O are the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders.  They have an amazing squad.  Good looking girls.  Hot looking uniforms.  Too bad they have a lousy football team…but things tend to run in cycles, so I am sure it won’t be too long before all us will be singing, “Hail to the Redskins”.  If their football team may be lacking, Redskins fans suffer from an embarrassment of riches when it comes to their cheerleaders.  And one of these riches is Ashley A., a 2011 P-R-O Convention All Star.

I remember an article that James wrote a couple years ago on the Jacksonville Axe Maidens, who cheer for the Jacksonville Axemen of the USA Rugby League, and I thought that they were a hot squad with cool uniforms.  So when I saw that they were sending their squad to P-R-O, I knew I wanted to focus my attention on them and snap a few posed photos.   So, here’s my tribute to Darlene Clancy’s Axe Maidens, 2011 P-R-O Convention All Stars.

Perhaps a better title should be Ladies of the Ring, but that doesn’t have that same cache. And it was certainly a better title than, “the Ringwraiths”. Oh well, let me explain. I’m a guy and as all females know, guys aren’t the most observant people on this earth. We tend to overlook things, like anniversaries or birth dates or in the case of my brother that his wife dyed her hair a different color. Yeah, that’s who we are and that’s how we roll. So it should come as no surprise that I overlooked something that should have been quite obvious and quite special. You see, I am not in the habit of checking out the ring fingers of girls, particularly when you have 260 gorgeous cheerleaders in front of you. With all this feminine pulchritude, your eye tends to gravitate to other areas, to put it politely.

The Indianapolis Colts Cheerleaders were at P-R-O and they have some amazing girls on their squad…well, pretty much all of them. Now a few years ago, the Colts won the Super Bowl and when you win a Super Bowl, you get a championship ring. The players do. The coaches do. And their cheerleaders did too. But I didn’t notice this until I got home from Atlanta and started the laborious process of editing my photos. Apparently, there were a few Colts cheerleaders rocking what looked like Super Bowl Championship rings. As I looked into the matter, I noticed that at least two girls who were on that Super Bowl squad were at P-R-O, Ashli and Tessa. And there were a few more girls that were on the 2009 AFC Championship squad that were also in attendance. They were wearing a large ring with a blue stone inlaid with a horseshoe. I thought that was the Super Bowl championship ring at first, but it was apparently the AFC championship ring because when I took a closer look at a photo of Ashli, she was rocking a HUGE ring with what appeared to be diamonds on the facing…that had to be the Super Bowl ring.

Well, I regret not noticing such an obvious thing and hope to get a closer look at next year’s P-R-O Convention. Now that would make for an interesting photo! Next time, girls. But for now, let’s take a look at the Lords of the Ring, the Indianapolis Colts Cheerleaders.

Colts Cheerleader rocking what appears to be a 2007 Super Bowl Ring

Colts Cheerleader Tessa, who was on that 2007 Super Bowl squad

Colts Cheerleader Breanna. That rock is blue, but not as blue as her eyes.

Colts Cheerleader Lauren M. showing off her 2009 AFC Championship ring

Colts Cheerleader Megan M.

UPDATE:  So I have just begun to take a second look at my images from last month’s P-R-O Convention and I discovered another Lord of the Ring.  There might one or two more girls that I overlooked and will add them as I come across those images.  But for now, here’s one more Colt cheerleader flashing some hardware.

In my experience, most professional cheerleaders are not only talent dancers, but goal oriented individuals.  I suppose you have to be if you want to become a professional dancer, but that drive and determination also serves you well in other endeavors, such as in education or in your career.  I guess what I am saying is most of these “pretty little cheerleaders” are really multifaceted and goal oriented young women who will have successful careers after they hang up their pom poms.  One such woman is Talmesha of the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders.  As James told me, Talmesha is in graduate school working on her doctorate in cellular and molecular medicine…Johns Hopkins Medical School to be precise.  Wow!  Beauty and brains.  For this and her on the field dance talents, Talmesha is a definitely a 2011 P-R-O Convention All Star.