Righetti’s Cover Girl
By Brad Memberto
As a young girl, Righetti High School alum Natalie Wilburn loved to dance. She would perform for her parent’s and friends. At 5 years old Wilburn had her first dance class and at 8 began a long love affair with the art.
And now, in her mid-20s, she has reached a new high in the dance world. Wilburn is currently in her first season as a dancer with the Chargers Girls, the dance team that performs at San Diego Chargers home games.
“I love performing, I’m the biggest ham,” Wilburn said recently during lunch at Klondike Pizza in Santa Maria, along with her parents Rad and Sophia Mawhinney.
“I love being in front of people,” Wilburn continued. “Since I was little I would dance around the kitchen, when there were people over I would have costumes on, giving dance performances.”
Her mother noticed the talent early and enrolled Wilburn in ballet class when she was 5 at Hancock College.
“She was in the kitchen one night teaching everyone the ‘Roger Rabbit’ dance,” Sophia Mawhinney explained. “A mother of one of Natalie’s friends said we should put her in dance class.”
Then at 8 Wilburn began a long association with the Adkins Dance Studio in Orcutt.
“I danced there until college and I used to teach there,” she explained.
A graduate of Righetti in 2001, Wilburn was a cheerleader for the Warriors during her sophomore and junior years, but dance took over when she was a senior. Wilburn took dance classes at Hancock, then after a freshman year at Cuesta, returned to Hancock to join the dance program.
She then moved to San Diego, where she continued her dancing.
“I took classes at the Academy for the Performing Arts and I went to a community college,” Wilburn explained. “Then in my spare time I danced for the Gulls, a hockey team for two years.
“Then for a while I cheered for the Wildcats, a minor league basketball in the ABA, then it became too time consuming – I was really busy with school and work.”
Beginning in 2003, Wilburn tried out three years in a row to become a Charger Girl without success. She then met Jason Plitz, a University of Minnesota graduate from Wisconsin. After a couple years of marriage, Plitz, working in construction management, convinced her to try out again.
“I thought, why not I have some extra time,” Wilburn said, “then I made it!”
The tryouts were a strenuous and grueling event, as Wilburn explained.
“It’s on a Sunday and it’s an all day ordeal,” she said. “Early in the morning you pre-register, you have to have a picture and a resume.
“It starts with usually 400 to 500 girls, then you have three separate cuts. At the end of the day you find out if you made it to the finals which is usually 50 to 60 girls.”
What followed was an interview portion, where a panel of nine, asked random questions to five or six candidates at a time.
“Then you have a final separate dance audition,” Wilburn continued, ” where you make up you own routine as well as a dance you learn – it is a pretty grueling process.”
When she was chosen to be on the team, Wilburn did not have much time to enjoy or celebrate.
“Right off the bat we had a mini camp which lasted a whole weekend,” she explained. “That was rough. We were up late then up early with one thing after another.
“Classes ranged from a public speaking seminar, to how to dress properly, the do’s and don’ts, then two whole days of learning choreography.”
After the first weekend, the Charger Girls practiced from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. one Saturday a month. During the season, the team practices once a week.
There isn’t much pay, but all the hard work and long hours are worth it to Wilburn.
“We are not doing it for the money – it’s for the experience,” she said. “I can’t even describe the experience on that first game, walking out on that field, hearing the crowd screaming and the fireworks.”
Then the experience became even more exciting when Wilburn found out that she was one of the dancers picked for the new Chargers Girls calendar.
“The whole calendar was a surprise,” Wilburn said. “We didn’t see it until the unveiling party, so we have no idea who they actually chose.
“It’s very rare for the calendar to feature a rookie. Sometimes they will have rookies come and shoot for the calendar, but usually they never actually make it.”
Wilburn was thrilled when she finally saw the calendar at the party.
“I cried like a baby,” she said. “It was pretty overwhelming.”
Wilburn is featured on the front and back cover group shots as well as in December 2010.
It must be hard to top the thrill of the calendar, but Wilburn did list a favorite part of the game.
“There is one moment that I love,” she explained. “When we’re on defense and we’re trying to get the crowd really loud – we raise our arms up and it’s like we are turning up the volume as the crowd keeps getting louder and louder.
“I don’t know if it’s because of us, but you see people going crazy and waving – I think that is one of my favorite parts.”
During the visit, her parents looked on with pride.
“I’m so proud of her,” her father, Rad, said. “She’s done very well for herself and worked hard. I think that making the Chargers Girls is something that she always wanted.”
Sophia, her mother, is also proud to point out that her daughter’s life goals are coming true as well. Wilburn is currently attending the College of Oriental Medicine in a four-year master’s program to become a licensed acupuncturist.
“I’m not sure what I want to specialize in yet,” Wilburn explained. “I really love kids, so I’m leaning towards pediatric acupuncture, I think I would be good with that.”
Sophia is also thankful to the Adkins Dance Studio and founder Joan Adkins for helping Wilburn hone her craft.
“That’s where she got the majority of her dance training,” Sophia said.
There is only one small bone of contention with the family. Rad and Sophia Mawhinney are avid San Francisco 49er fans who proudly wear the San Francisco colors whenever they go to a football game.
“They came down for the Chargers-49ers pre-season game,” Wilburn said. “I told them if they come down to Chargers games they have to wear Chargers gear.
“But the San Francisco game is the only one I’ll let him wear his Niner gear.”
So the Mawhinneys wore their colors.
“Both of us did,” Sophia said,” I had mine too”
But the Charger Girls could only laugh at them.
“Yeah,” she said smiling, “but then we beat them.”
