42-year-old Ben-Gal cheerleader’s made-for-Hollywood story

by Lauren Bishop
Cincinnati.com
May 8, 2011

It all happened faster than Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco can sign a contract for a new reality show.

In January, a video about Ben-Gal cheerleader Laura Vikmanis went live on the Yahoo home page, telling the story of how the Springboro dietitian and 42-year-old single mother of two teens became the NFL’s oldest cheerleader two years ago. And she’s about to enter her third season.

Then the phone calls and Facebook messages started pouring in – and they haven’t stopped since.

“The very first call I got was from a Hollywood producer,” said Vikmanis, taking a break from a workshop for prospective Ben-Gals at Paul Brown Stadium last month. “I was kind of in shock.”

By the end of March, she had sold the rights to her life story to New Line. The studio has hired screenwriters Emily Cook and Kathy Greenberg – whose credits include “Gnomeo & Juliet” and “Ratatouille” – to tell her tale of personal triumph over the odds of making a squad made up mostly of women 20 years younger.

The film is likely one to three years away from hitting theaters, and its stars have not been cast, Vikmanis said. But she’s already fielding interview requests from all over the world and landing the sort of press that would make any A-list movie star jealous.

She recently went to New York City – her first trip there – to appear on CBS’s “The Early Show,” Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” and “Inside Edition.” And she’s made headlines around the world, like this one from The Australian: “Pom pom mum Laura Vikmanis a movie shaker.”

Vikmanis has been scheduling the interviews herself, in between meetings with clients, in addition to fielding hundreds of Facebook messages from strangers. Some have told her that they’re unemployed and that she has inspired them to find out what they want to do with their lives. A middle-aged man in the military wrote to say that he’s competing against soldiers in their 20s and was happy to hear that he’s not alone.

“People (write), ‘Is this the real Laura?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah this is still me,'” she said. “I’m not untouchable. Are you kidding me? I’m just a normal person.”

Make that a normal person who happens to have a made-for-Hollywood story. A dancer from ages 3 to 17, Vikmanis – a petite, slender blond with an ever-present smile and a voice that sounds much younger than her years – decided to try out for the Ben-Gals after her marriage ended. (She said she can’t go into further detail about that part of her life because of the movie and other pending projects.)

“I was at a point in my life where I felt lost,” she said. “I just came through a divorce and I needed to find myself again.”

When she first walked into a pre-tryouts workshop in 2008, she said felt a bit embarrassed by how much older she was than the rest of the prospective cheerleaders, but she stuck it out.

“It was more of a quest for individual self-growth and getting myself out there and gaining my confidence back versus ‘I want to be the oldest cheerleader,'” she said. “That didn’t even cross my mind.”

She was crushed when she didn’t make the squad that year.

“On the one hand, I was so proud of myself that I even tried out and got myself out there and had the confidence to do it,” She said. “On the other hand, I was like, I’m going to miss these girls. I want to come back.”

So after a year of working out and watching her diet, she tried out again in 2009 and made it. She had to list her age on her application, but she said no one ever made an issue of it.

“She just seemed like one of the girls,” said fellow Ben-Gal Brandy Sanchez, 31, who made the team at the same time. “She and I just clicked right away. She’s very down to earth, very personable, very helpful to me and very open and honest, which I loved. She did not seem like she was older.”

Even before the movie news broke, Vikmanis had inspired other older women to try out for the team, said Ben-Gals director Charlotte Jacobs.

“In the last two years, Laura’s story has prompted other women to take a second look at where they are in their lives,” Jacobs said. “But it’s a process. Laura just didn’t overnight become the person that she is physically.”

Vikmanis said she works out for about an hour just about every day, in addition to attending twice-weekly practices during the summer and through the football season. And she said she still gets game day jitters, although her teammates said they don’t notice.

“She’s competing with 21-year-old women who are coming into this experience, and she’s got literally 20 years on them,” Sanchez said. “It’s very difficult for her sometimes, but she does a phenomenal job. You’d never know that she’s nervous, if she is.”

After last month’s workshop for prospective cheerleaders, she didn’t appear nervous at all, chatting with an attendee who excitedly told her that she had seen her on TV the night before.

“People have told me, ‘The reason why I’m here is because of you,’ and it just brings tears to my eyes,” she said. “I just can’t even believe it, it’s so awesome. That was me three years ago.”

Also unbelievable to Vikmanis: That producers have asked her who should play her in the movie. (They’ve asked her not to name names publicly.)

“When the producers asked me, I just laughed,” she said. “I can’t believe that someone is asking me this and that it’s actually going to happen.”

The Ben-Gals will hold a public, final round of tryouts from 3-8 p.m.Sunday at the Newport Syndicate, 18 E. Fifth St., Newport. Tickets are $20 in advance through www.cincyticket.com and $25 at the door. All ages. Information: www.bengals.com/cheerleaders/auditions.html