Local woman joins Atlanta Hawks’ dance team

By Angela Woolen
The Sun News
Jun. 30, 2010

After attending her first Atlanta Hawks basketball game during the playoffs against the Orlando Magic earlier this year, one local woman — with a little prodding from her boyfriend — decided to try out for the A-Town Dance team.

Andrea Phillips, 21, of Warner Robins, who goes by Andi, saw the dancers during the game and mentioned to Daniel Erligh, her boyfriend, that she’d like to do that. He told her she should try out.

“While we were sitting there watching the dancers (at the game), it just clicked that she looks like she should be out there,” Erligh said.

Phillips found out the afternoon of June 20 that she made the team — coincidentally, two years to the day that she and Erligh met.

“I was shocked I made it through the first cut,” she said.

Erligh, she said, is thrilled for her.

“He is my main supporter,” Phillips said.

Erligh, 27, was with Phillips when she got the call.

After a thumbs-up sign from Phillips, Erligh said he let out a yell before she even got off of the phone.

Her mother, Kris McMahan, is also very proud of her daughter.

“We’re just tickled pink,” McMahan said.

Phillips, a Warner Robins High School graduate, is a pre-nursing student at Georgia Military College. She’s also a lifeguard at Robins Air Force Base. Her goal is to become an orthopedic nurse.

“I just love the bones,” Phillips said. “I know it’s really random.”

When Phillips gets the practice schedule, she plans to commute to Atlanta from her Warner Robins home.

Phillips started dancing when she was younger and was a cheerleader at Warner Robins Middle School for three years, as well as in ninth grade at Warner Robins High School. She has been out of the dancing loop for about five or six years.

She competed against more than 200 girls, according to McMahan. The final tryout had 52 contestants, and 18 were chosen. Only half of last year’s squad made the team this year.

“I just feel very blessed,” Phillips said.