Miami might be the hottest spot on the planet this week, and Travasha Winfrey has been at the center of the sizzle.
The Indianapolis Colts Cheerleader has been busy with guest appearances and photo shoots since arriving in South Florida on Tuesday, and she’s done her fair share of shopping and lounging on the beach. Winfrey also has taken advantage of Miami’s night life. She was a VIP at a party hosted by the Kardashians, and she’s mingled with countless other celebrities and famous athletes, including former Dallas Cowboys Terrell Owens and Deion Sanders.
Winfrey figures to have even more fun today, when she’ll perform on the field during Super Bowl XLIV between the Colts and New Orleans Saints.
“Right now it’s, like, surreal. I don’t know how to explain it,” said Winfrey, who even got a tattoo to commemorate the occasion. “I’m just kind of in a dream, just passing along slowly. I think it won’t hit me until I walk out on that field and look up and realize I’m at Super Bowl XLIV.”
It’s already been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the 2006 Coronado graduate, but it nearly passed her by. Winfrey considered not making the trip to Miami with the rest of the Colts cheerleaders, because her heart is back home in Lubbock.
Winfrey’s grandmother, Priscilla Gilmore, died of breast cancer on Jan. 28. Her funeral was Wednesday in Lubbock, and Winfrey would have been there if not for the blessing of her family.
“She was really struggling with coming back (or not), because it’s a big opportunity in Miami,” said Winfrey’s mother, Betty Gilmore. “Her grandpa actually called her and told her that this is what her grandmother would have wanted. I know it relieved her a little bit, but I know her heart is still here.”
The 21-year-old Winfrey, who visited her grandmother last month, said she makes it back to Lubbock about four times a year and still keeps in touch with some of her friends from Coronado. She also stays plenty busy in Indianapolis, where she’s more than an NFL Cheerleader.
Winfrey is a college student at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, where she’s majoring in tourism, conventions and events management, and she teaches at Butler University’s Jordan Academy of Dance and at the Indy Dance Club. She’s also delved into modeling, acting and singing.
“It’s just so exciting,” said Winfrey, who appeared on the Price Is Right game show during a summer vacation to Los Angeles. “I just don’t want it to stop. It’s like a roller coaster that keeps going up.”
Her part-time job with the Colts has been a highlight, and it gave Winfrey the chance to tour Europe and the Middle East last year while entertaining American soldiers. But she knows she can’t roam the sidelines forever, saying, “It’s one of those things where you reach your prime pretty fast.”
Winfrey said she aspires to be a model or actress, and her passion for performing was evident early on. Her mother said she used to walk around the kitchen using a spoon as a microphone, and Winfrey was often working on dance moves and trying to emulate performers such as Beyonce.
“This is what she’s always loved,” Gilmore said. “She’s made us very, very proud – not just with cheering for the Colts but overall. She’s been a great kid.
“She’s living, I guess, the beginning of her dream. I know it’s just the beginning.”
Speaking of beginnings, Winfrey’s were fairly humble. She was a cheerleader at Irons Junior High but not at Coronado, where she tried out twice for the pom squad but didn’t make it.
Instead she became a mascot for the Mustangs – “I was the first and pretty sure the only mascot to be homecoming queen,” Winfrey said – and she also played basketball and volleyball and ran track. She participated in beauty pageants as well, winning a crown as Miss Teen North Texas.
Winfrey said her experience with the Coronado pom squad made her hesitant about trying out with the Colts cheerleading squad, but after spending two years on the dance team at IUPUI and receiving constant encouragement from her parents, she worked up the nerve to give it a shot.
According the Theresa Pottratz, the Colts’ cheerleading coordinator, Winfrey was an immediate hit because of her dancing ability and personality.
“I never thought I would be doing dancing as my profession. I couldn’t even make the Coronado pom squad,” said Winfrey, who has survived two, fiercely competitive tryouts with the Colts. “It made me persevere for more, and I’m doing a lot now.”
Now Winfrey is living her dream, and she’s only one Colts win away from earning a Super Bowl ring. But if the Colts beat the Saints today for their second championship in four years, Winfrey might have to keep that ring under lock and key.
“If she does get a Super Bowl ring, I’m trying to see if I can bribe her to give it to her mother,” Gilmore joked. “So far, it’s not working.”
Don’t try to tell Napa native Jackie Rowan that the cheerleaders will be a mere distraction during Super Bowl XLIV today in Miami.
“Cheerleaders play an important role in the atmosphere surrounding the game and the franchise,” said Rowan, who will be on the sidelines today as a member of the New Orleans Saints cheerleading squad. “To refer to us as sideline ‘eye candy’ fails to account for the countless hours we spend at appearances for charity and as volunteers in the communities.”
Rowan, who has been in Miami through the week leading up to the showdown between the NFC champion Saints and the AFC champion Indianapolis Colts, actually believes she and her peers are part of the much larger team.
“We cheer and hope alongside Saints fans,” Rowan, 24, said. “We are a constant reminder of the special bond between New Orleans and the Saints.”
Today’s kickoff might be a bit of a breather for Rowan and her cheer teammates after a hectic week.
“Our schedule is crazy! I’ve never been to Miami before, but the city has just been buzzing with excitement,” she said. “There isn’t a place I go without overhearing someone talk about the Super Bowl.”
Rowan spent hours involved in Super Bowl media appearances and other events.
“Some of us did a swim suit show and after that it was press, press and more press,” she said. “We practiced in the hotel ball room until Friday and then practiced in the stadium.”
She’s excited about the opportunity to be part of the biggest game of the National Football League season.
“Each cheer team performs a pregame dance, and then of course we’ll be on the sidelines dancing the whole game,” Rowan said. “It’s amazing to think that I’m going to have the best seat at the Super Bowl … on the field right on the 50-yard line.”
Napa High grad Jackie Rowan, shown signing autographs as a 49ers Cheerleader Ambassador, has spent the season on the cheer squad for the NFC champion New Orleans Saints.
Rowan, who danced at Napa High School for four years before graduating in 2003, began as part of the San Francisco 49ers cheerleaders.
“I was working in San Francisco and thought the opportunity would be exciting and challenging,” Rowan said. “I wanted to apply my passion for dance to a professional yet heart-pounding environment. I tried out and was thrilled to be placed on the 49ers Gold Rush Ambassador Squad.”
Rowan moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University, where she studies anthropology.
“More specifically, I’m studying primatology,” she said. “I decided to pursue job opportunities after high school. I do envision graduate school in my near future.”
Rowan went through the challenging process of trying to earn a spot on the Saints cheerleading squad after arriving in Louisiana.
“We went through a series of intense auditions, evaluating our dance abilities, physical fitness, and personalities,” she said. “The panel looked for energy, confidence, enthusiasm, and the willingness to work towards a common goal. I made it through the rounds of selections and, before I knew it, I was at the new team orientation retreat on the beaches of Destin, Fla.”
Between school, a job and cheerleading, Rowan has been busy.
“I must balance school, internship, and cheerleading in what often seems like an impossible schedule,” she said. “Most days I’m running out of class to head to the practice facility or squeezing in a late workout after a long day at my primate internship. This has certainly been a wild ride, but provided important lessons in time management.
“Cheerleading dominates Tuesday, Thursday and often Saturday nights in addition to Sunday afternoon or evening home games. We put in extra practice time for prime-time games on Sunday and Monday nights and for the playoffs.”
Rowan is a football fan, but acknowledges that devotion to the sport is different in her new hometown.
“I have always enjoyed the game of football, but the experience is incredibly different in Louisiana,” she said. “From the ear-piercing screams from fans in the Superdome to massive block parties before and after games, I have grown to love the excitement and hype surrounding football.”
Still, she admits that her love for dancing drew her to the Saints.
“The opportunity to dance and cheer under the spotlight was at the core of my interests,” Rowan said.
Saints cheerleaders are especially busy on game day.
“We generally arrive at the stadium up to six hours prior to game time,” she said. “We have some time at our lockers to do some essential touch-ups before dealing with press appearances, etc. We will go through some progressions of player introductions, quarter-break dances, and halftime entertainment.”
It’s harder than some might believe to keep pace as an NFL cheerleader.
“We’re constantly and rapidly learning new dances with different alignments and positions,” Rowan mentioned. “We have to have flexible memories to master dances for stadium and television audience in just a few days.”
Her year with the Saints cheerleaders has been rewarding.
“I have so many friendships that I developed with my fellow teammates,” she said. “These amazing girls gather from all corners of the state of Louisiana, and come together to form a family. We have all grown so close over the course of this remarkable season, and have made memories that will last a lifetime.”
Rowan knows her time at Tulane will lead to her ultimate career goal.
“I would like to continue to work with animals, and specifically primates, in a research capacity,” she said. “I want to explore the intersection of primate behavior and environmental change, and address issues relating to captivity habitat management.”
Oh, there will be other football seasons. There may even be another NFC championship.
But none of it will happen as it did this year, when the Saintsations fielded a “dream team.”
That’s what former LSU Golden Girl Lesslee Fitzmorris, the Saintsations’ manager, calls this year’s Saints’ cheerleading squad.
“We all knew that this season was going to be special,” Fitzmorris, of Covington, said. “We knew it last summer, when we had our retreat in Destin, Fla. Never have I had a group like this.”
First, squad members posed no intrasquad competition, meaning no one tried to outdo anyone else. Criticism was replaced by support.
Those attitudes forged an instant bond among the 37 — 34 Saintsations plus choreographers, Blair Buras and Eileen Arnold, and Mama, as Fitzmorris calls herself. The closeness had to be a good omen, right?
“I remember coming back from the retreat and telling coach Payton, ‘I have the Dream Team this year,’” Fitzmorris said.
Of course, as head coach of the New Orleans Saints, Sean Payton was working on his own dream team, one that’s played its way to the Super Bowl for the first time in the team’s 43-year history, a journey that somehow seemed predestined.
“We just knew,” said Brittany Hamilton, a political science major at LSU. Her sister Chrissy Hamilton also is a Saintsation and is a student in the Xavier University College of Pharmacy.
But Brittany Hamilton also knows that this group will never pass this way again. Friendships are lifelong, but Dream Teams are rare. Membership will change next year. Some members will leave; others may not make the team. And even if the Saints were to make a repeat Super Bowl appearance in 2011, it wouldn’t be the same. You have to have been there. But that’s past tense. The 2009 Saintsations are there now.
On Jan. 28, squad members, dressed in identical two-piece practice uniforms of black and gold, were running through their final home rehearsal before leaving for Miami.
“They have all kinds of uniforms,” Fitzmorris said. “They’re girls, so, of course they love clothes.”
But the most coveted perks are the game day parking passes.
“They say the pass, alone, is worth being a Saintsation,” Fitzmorris said.
Macie Brown picked a great year to join the Saintsations.
In fact, it’s been super.
As a first-year member of the New Orleans Saints dance team, the Breaux Bridge native and Teurlings Catholic graduate has performed on the sidelines for every one of the club’s home games in the Superdome.
She’s been there every step of the way for a magical season.
“It’s been an amazing experience,” Brown said. “Before the game, when they say ‘Presenting the Saintsations,’ it gives you such an energy boost. Your heart starts pumping and you feel all the emotions in the Superdome. It’s unbelievable, really.”
It’s more than that. It’s perfect.
Brown and the rest of the squad are in Miami for Super Bowl XLIV as the NFC Champion Saints meet the AFC’s Indianapolis Colts for the NFL championship on Sunday.
The Saints swamped Arizona 45-14 and edged Minnesota 31-28 in overtime to sweep both playoff games in the Dome after posting an NFC-best 13-3 regular season finish, the best in team history.
“The championship game was quite a nail-biter,” Brown said. “Each game has been a different experience.”
The Saintsations were given a send-off party at the Royal Sonesta Hotel before departing for the game, arriving midweek for what promised to be a busy week of preparations.
“We’re supposed to make an appearance at Universal Studios, and do the Ellen (DeGeneres) Show,” Brown said on Monday. “Nothing is locked down at this point. They’ll tell us as we go.
“We’ll also rehearse our routines. We didn’t know we were supposed to perform pregame, but we and the Colts dancers will both perform. That’s pretty new. But, we’re always prepared.”
Brown excelled in three areas of tryouts last April to make the Saintsations, following in the footsteps of her sister Keisha Borel, who was a member of the squad in 1998.
“I remember going to (Saints) games and watching her, and being so jealous,” Brown said. “I always wanted to do it. I thought I could, if I put my mind to it.”
Borel provided a tip or two before the auditions with 100 other aspirants.
“She always tells me to be myself, that God created me for me,” Brown said. “She told me to just go and have the best time of my life. I love it. We all get along really well.”
Each Saintsations prospect is judged not only on dance skills, but is also quizzed on football fundamentals, handles one-on-one interviews and spot questions, and is graded on public speaking ability.
With support from her husband Timothy and parents Gerald and Cindy Borel, Brown is balancing coursework at UL in business management, with a minor in dance, along with her full slate of Saintsations obligations.
Macie was a member of Teurlings Catholic’s competition dance team for four years and was nominated captain her senior year, a natural fit after attending Liz Trahan’s School of Dance in Cecilia from an early age.
She has taught at that studio for the last six years, and is experienced in jazz, tap, hip hop and lyrical. She has also choreographed competition routines for numerous junior high and high school cheerleading squads and dance teams.
“My mom started me at the studio when I was 3 years old, and I thank her every day for that,” Brown said. “Whatever I end up doing, I could never see myself not dancing.”
The Borels and Timothy Brown will be in Miami to share the Super Bowl experience, while Cindy Borel also has a ticket for the game.
Slidell resident, Jennifer Thomas, a New Orleans Saintsation, headed out for Miami Tuesday to cheer on the Saints to victory in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Thomas is a member of the New Orleans Saintsations, the official cheerleading team for the New Orleans Saints.
Thomas won the competition last April to win a coveted position on the prestigious team. In addition to advanced dance technical skills, applicants were judged by area professionals in one-on-one interviews and tested on football fundamentals. The final round of competition included on the spot question and answer and public speaking skills.
Thomas is the daughter of Adam Owenton Thomas Jr. and stepdaughter of Gretchen Kay Thomas of Slidell and the daughter of Cheryl Lynn Thomas of Gonzales. She is the granddaughter of Bobby and Kathleen Waters and of the late Adam Owenton Thomas Sr. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in graphic design from Samfor University in Birmingham, Ala., and also received a minor in fine arts in the spring of 2008. Thomas graduated high school from Northshore High School in 2004.
Currently, Thomas works as the director of marketing and public relations for McDonald’s in the greater New Orleans area.
In addition to performing at NFL Saints home football games, the Saintsations have traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit troops and were recognized for their community service efforts by the Louisiana Legislature. Team members recently returned from a week long NFL promotional trip to Mexico. Team members have competed in the NFL nationally televised Cheerleading championship, appeared in events surrounding the NFL Super Bowl and competed against other NFL cheerleading teams at the Super Bowl Beach challenge. Last season, the entire team was featured at the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio as well as the London regular season game in October.
The Saintsations support community projects through the “Saintsations Inspiration Program.” The primary focus of the program is to promote positive initiatives geared toward women and children.
They have worked hand-in-hand with Angel’s Place in New Orleans. This non-profit organization provides care and comfort for terminally ill children. They also work with more than 700 young girls in their Junior Saintsation program.
“The Saintsations are influential role models to the youth,” said team manager, Lesslee Fitzmorris, “ e look for young women who are committed to leading a healthy, productive lifestyle both on and off the field. Jennifer is a true representative of the youth and talent in the New Orleans area. “
The Saintsations left Tuesday for Miami. They will make an appearance at Universal Studios prior to their arrival in Miami. The team is schedule to appear on Fox and Friends, the CBS Early Show, the Bill O’Reilly show and make numerous appearances. On Super Bowl Sunday, the team will perform at pre-game.
They will be one step away from the action on game day, cheering the New Orleans Saints in their first Super Bowl game.
Look closely at the sidelines during Sunday’s Super Bowl and you just might spot Mobile native Jasmine Smith.
Smith is a member of the Saintsations, the official cheerleading squad for the New Orleans Saints, and she’s smitten with the idea of cheering the team to victory in the Super Bowl.
“It’s so amazing to be going to the Super Bowl,” Smith said in a telephone interview last week. “This experience has been indescribable and I know it’s going to get even better.”
Cheering and dance are this 20-year-old’s expertise. At Murphy High School, the daughter of Stevie and Anissa Smith of Mobile was a member of the cheerleading squad and the track team, and maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout her high school career.
She attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she was a member of several organizations, such as the Co-ed cheerleading team, SOBER, NAACP, BSAC, and Alpha Lambda Delta an academic scholars program. Currently, she is pursuing a Doctorate of Pharmacy degree at Xavier University.
Smith said she is living out her dream to be a professional cheerleader.
“I’ve been dancing since age six. And I’ve always watched the Saints cheerleaders closely, hoping someday to be standing in their shoes,” she said.
Relocating to New Orleans last year to study at Xavier offered Smith the opportunity she had hoped for. She said that even though she began her studies at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, her hopes of becoming a Saintsation never died. The move to New Orleans made it all possible.
“It was a very long, hard process and the tryouts were tough. But it has been an amazing opportunity to meet so many intelligent and goal-oriented women. They are great motivators.”
While Smith is away cheering the Saints on this week, her classes will go on and she worries about the effect he absence will have on her studies.
“I know that I’m going to be behind, but I’ll catch up,” she said. “This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. I’ve got to be there.”
An Ellisville dance instructor who works with Saints cheerleaders will head to Miami on Tuesday for the Super Bowl.
For five years, Lora Davis has been working with the Saintsations.
She travels with the squad and helps them with choreography and public appearances.
“Once we get there, we’ll have appearances, performances and then they’ll have their big performance Sunday before the super bowl,” said Davis.
Davis is familiar with the Super Bowl. This will be her sixteenth season. She has worked for several years on the NFL’s pre -game shows.
“It’s estimated that 80 to 90 million homes will be watching the super bowl this Sunday, so no pressure on the team,” said Davis. “They have worked every day since we won our last game.”
The Saintsations have been mastering new routines and sideline cheers in preparation for the big game. Davis said she’s been busy teaching students at her studio, Ellisville Dance Arts.
“This is great for my dancers as well,” said Davis. For them to sit back and see some of the girls that I’ve worked with in addition to them gives them a feeling that there is something that they can do one day and accomplish.”
Davis said she looks forward to reuniting with many of the people she has worked with during previous super bowls.
Miami might be the hottest spot on the planet this week, and Travasha Winfrey has been at the center of the sizzle.
An Ellisville dance instructor who works with Saints cheerleaders will head to Miami on Tuesday for the Super Bowl.