Abilene Ruff Riders introduce family-friendly dancers
Ruff Riders dancers return to make games family-friendly
By Hannah Boen
Abilene Reporter-News
March 13, 2011
Jessica Hewitt owns Main Street Studio in Hawley and has years of dancing and instructing under her belt. She said the goal for the new dance team was to start fresh.
The local arena football games aren’t known for having a family atmosphere. In fact, in a reader poll, 44 percent of the voters said the games ranked 1 for family friendliness on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst. Seven of the 86 voters gave the games a rank of 5.
Hewitt said the biggest challenge is pleasing everyone.
“It’s still hip-hop,” she said. “My goal is to meet a happy medium. That’s hard but we’re going to try.”
She gives the ladies a lot of credit for attempting to make all the fans happy. Although the women have dance experience, she said performances on game day are completely different from recital dancing.
“It’s a lot different from dancing in front of stage lights,” she said. “You can see everyone’s faces, reactions. It’s a whole different ballgame.”
Delilah Fritz danced with the team two seasons ago. She said she is one of four women who returned to the dance team after the season without dancers.
She is an early childhood education major at McMurry University and said she doesn’t have any opportunities to dance at the university, so she is excited to be back on the Ruff Riders field.
“I love dancing and enjoy meeting fans, performing in front of fans,” she said. “It’s a really good experience and I feel like I am being recognized as a role model.”
She said she felt the atmosphere at Ruff Riders games has always been family-friendly.
“Other than our outfits being more conservative, there’s no change,” she said. Outfits before showed about two inches of stomach and had a slit up the sides of the skirt, she said.
The dancers were selected in January after two rounds of tryouts. Fritz said she dedicates about 10 hours a week to the team.
“Three hours usually of practice,” she said, “and the rest is just doing things to look good, exercising. And we make appearances.”
Ruff Riders General Manager Brett Quigley said the girls do volunteer some of their time but are compensated in various ways, including free tanning and nail services.
Anderson said the differences in this season’s team stretch beyond new uniforms.
“They’re just good girls,” he said. “Most of them are in school, they’re doing good things outside of this, and we didn’t take anyone who couldn’t dance.”
All 10 girls are from the Abilene area and many of them are working toward degrees in higher education. To see photos and learn more about the dancers, visit http://677pass.com/picturesandbios.html.
