Dance Fever at Warriors Tryouts
Indoor football team holds tryouts for dance squad
By Pat Muir
Yakima Herald-Republic
By the time I arrived at the Howard Johnson motel for the Yakima Valley Warriors dance team auditions, the 19 young women trying to make the team had been hard at work for more than an hour.
“We already did across-the-floor combinations, split checks and kick checks,” Crystal Chestnut, the dance team coordinator, told me.
Drat — I had been so looking forward to across-the-floor combinations.
I jest, of course. I don’t know a box step from a pas de bourrée. This was new territory for me, here in this fluorescent-lit conference room on Saturday. It was me, Chestnut, team entertainment coordinator Krista Coplin, team owner Mike Mink and a couple of other team officials. And, of course, 19 aspiring dancers wearing little more than spandex shorts and sports bras.
From where I was sitting — a Howard Johnson’s conference room that was starting to smell a little sweaty — there wasn’t much glamour to it. Team officials ran the dancers through drills. Then had them audition in pairs. Then had them do it all again. Frankly it looked like hard work.
“One, two, three, four,” Chestnut shouted to her charges. “Come together! Release! Release! There you go.”
It was enough to make a guy wonder why anyone would put themselves through this. Even those who make the dance team aren’t going to be paid, at least not during the team’s first year. They’ll have to practice for two hours twice a week and give up plenty of their lives to be part of this team.
The dancers, who ranged in age from 18 to 28, were uniformly polite and cheery when you asked why they wanted to be part of the team. The answers ranged from “I just love to dance,” to “I want to be a role model for young girls.”
“It’s like every girl’s dream to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader,” said 18-year-old Allie Stiffler of Naches. “But what are the odds of that?”
While the accuracy of her “every girl’s dream” statement may be a bit dubious, its sincerity was off the charts — she would have loved to be a Cowboys Cheerleader. But she’s realistic. So instead, here she was trying out for the Yakima Valley Lady Warriors Dance Team.
The Warriors are a new team that will play in the American Indoor Football Association. Its first game should be in April in the Yakima Valley SunDome.
My favorite prospective team member on Saturday was Kristine Gimlin, a 28-year-old mother of five from Prosser. She surprised me and the judges with her energy. I mean this mother of five was straight bringin’ it on every routine.
“She’s been the best dancer so far,” one judge said.
“Amazing energy,” said another.
“Yeah, she’s a firecracker, that girl.”
That’s not why she was my favorite, though. What I liked most about Gimlin was her answer about why she wanted to be on the team. Being part of a team, she said, is its own reward.
“I wish there were 19 spots, so everyone could make it,” Gimlin said.
When I left, after several hours at the audition, the team officials still hadn’t made their final decisions. But I was right there with her, wishing all 19 could make it.
