Mobile Native Jasmine Smith Will Cheer New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl

By Debra Braggs
al.com

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.”