By Megan Johnson
Boston Herald
March 18, 2012

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Paula Abdul, Madonna, even Snooki: Some of the most famous stars in Hollywood scored their first starring roles at the top of a pep rally pyramid.

That’s right, before they rose to fame for spewing nonsense at talent-show contestants, Voguing, or inappropriate pregnancies, each of those ladies was once a high school cheerleader.

So in the spirit of hunting down the next Madonna — and possibly seeing a girl fall off the top of a pyramid — I jumped at the chance to judge the final auditions for the 2012 Rev Girls squad, the New England Revolution’s pom-pom girls. After all, I have seen “Bring it On” about 50 times, so I think I’m pretty qualified.

The event was emceed by Boston comic Dave Russo, who was VERY eager to tell me that he came in second on a reality show a few years ago (“The Entertainer,” hosted by Wayne Newton. Remember it? Didn’t think so…)

Along with my esteemed co-judges (Translation: Fellow media folk and “The Voice” star James Massone, who’s currently prepping to compete on Cee Lo Green’s team) we packed into The Greatest Bar. There, I helped whittle the 17 finalists down to eight winners based on four areas of expertise: trivia knowledge, overall appearance, group cheering, and crowd interaction.

The best moment by far came during the trivia portion of our program, when the ladies had the opportunity to share their vast knowledge on the sport of soccer and the Revs.

“Name five players on the New England team,” asked Russo.

You could have heard crickets. Not a single hand shot up, so Dave had to go with his plan B, which was to “name one member of the New England team.” That was a much more successful pursuit.

But despite your assumptions about cheerleaders, the lovely women were a pretty diverse crew.

“I’m a lifelong dancer, and I’ve always wanted to get into it professionally,” said Kelsey Kneeland, a brainy redhead who’s studying strategic management and entrepreneurship at Babson College. “I’ve always been in a sorority, but I’m graduating from college in May and I want to stay a part of an organization.”

Way to use that business degree, Kels!

When all was yelled and done, the eight new Rev Girls are: Dover homegal Katerina Akrivlellis, Kelsey Kneeland from Shrewsbury, Jessica May Wright from Manchester, N.H., Tyngsboro gal Holly Johnson, Anne Marie Conde from Norton, Ashland’s Anjha Thomas, Danielle Tousignant of Chelmsford and Kimberly Howe from Boston.

Rah, rah, rah.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nerevolution/sets/72157629596893591/with/6841035494/

The 2012 ChivaGirls! Back row (left to right): Traci, Denise, Sarah, Melissa, Brittany, Chandra, Alex, Maryedith, Cynthia, and Lucy. Front row: Cameron, Mekayla, Ashley, Natalie, Andi, Brandy, Sujan, Shauna, and Whitney.

It’s March, and the Major League Soccer season is well underway. The ChivaGirls, dance team for Chivas USA have hit their stride. With only two games under their sparkly belts, they’ve experienced both the highs and lows of pro sports entertainment. The home opener on March 11 was a blast. It’s always exciting to get back out there after a few months of hiatus. The girls mingled with fans before the game, signing autographs and taking lots of pictures. They also performed two short dance routines on a stage outside of the arena. Their performance at halftime was a real marathon, with a kickline, individual introductions, and a full out routine to Flor Rida’s “Good Feeling.” The crowd’s energy was up and all the girls were riding high after the game.

Game two was six days later, on St. Patrick’s Day. All week long, local meteorologists broadcasted dire warnings about major storms over the coming weekend. (This being Southern California, “major storms” consist mostly of some rain and maybe some wind, but around here it’s a BIG deal.) It was cloudy and cool during the pre game rehearsal. All of the ChivaGirls were bundled up, until they got warm enough from dancing to peel off layers of scarves and sweatshirts. No one said it, but they were all thinking about how cold they were in sweats, and how much MORE fun the weather would be once they ‘d changed into their uniforms. Spandex has many outstanding qualities, but warmth isn’t one of them.

When it was time to go out and meet the fans, the girls marched out with their chins up. Not a one of them complained as the signed autographs for fans who were bundled up in blankets, hats and scarves. The girls just kept smiling and while the wind flipped their skirts around and blew their hair every which way.

We are very very very cold.

It was cloudy during rehearsal. It was cloudy before the game. It was cloudy during pre-game. And it was cloudy as the girls headed out for halftime. But everyone was jazzed because we’d escaped the big rain storm. The halftime performance was a novelty dance to “Shake Your Groove Thing.” There were some cartwheels involved in the choreography, and no one had looked forward to cartwheeling on a muddy soccer field in the rain.

About to take the field for halftime. Poor unsuspecting dears.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature was in a snarky mood that night. It started drizzling just before the girls took the field, and turned into a full on downpour during their routine.

And then just as they hit the ending pose, the rain stopped.

I don’t think it rained again the rest of the night. How fortunate we were that the sixty-second rain storm took place entirely during the ChivaGirls halftime performance. But these girls are pros. The photos don’t tell the true story. Yeah, there are rain spots on their uniforms and a little stringy-ness to their hair, but otherwise you can’t tell at all they were freezing their pom poms off the whole night. Good times, ladies. Good times.

[Complete Dynamo Girl Audition Info]

In the meantime, watch the dancers strut their stuff for the judges at Tuesday night’s final audition.

Tonight, a truly outstanding group of dancers will put it all out on the dance floor, in the hope of making the team. I’ll provide photos, etc in the next couple of days. But for now, I want to wish each and every young lady the best of luck.

Here they are (minus Whitney and Sherra, who I didn’t get photos of at Sunday’s interviews. My bad.)

Alexandra, Stephanie, Kyra, and Traci

Alyson, Lauren, and Mekayla

Ari, Sonia, Cameron, and Denise

Ashley, Bernadette, Merria, and Sabrina

Chandra, Andi, and Sujan

Jenny, Melissa, Maryedith, and Cynthia

Joanne, Brittany, Brandy, and Natalie

Lucy and Dani

Tina, Shauna, Sarah, and Simmone

BIGTIME thanks to Will for sending the link the this video he produced the year before last.

Looks like fun, doesn’t it?