Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Feature – Part 1

The Girls of Paradise … Ally Traylor
By Mickey Spagnola
Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine
(by way of DallasCowboysCheerleaders.com)
June 14, 2011

If all goes well during training camp this summer, Ally Traylor will be the senior member of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders this coming season. She has already put in four years, and is gunning for one more, her fifth.

By her count, from 2007-2010, she has lined up on the sideline of either Texas Stadium or Cowboys Stadium 42 times, eight regular-season and two preseason games each year plus two NFC playoff contests. Not bad for a girl who grew up in St. Charles, Mo., and began watching football, predominately the Cowboys, as a child so she could spend time with her father, a huge fan of the team.

At such an early age, Ally declared to her father, Joseph Traylor, “That’s what I want to be when I grow up,” seeing the Cowboys Cheerleaders on the sidelines while watching those Dallas home games.

Well, that’s what she became, all right, and little did she know she would be tugging her parents along for what’s been a memorable ride with the DCC.

“Watching those Cowboys games was definitely a family affair when I was growing up,” Ally says. “And now I get to share with them all of the joy and the memories I’m making now being a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. They, too, have been to all 42 of my games.

“I’m kind of a nerd, the girls tease me about being a nerd, always writing things down – kind of, I don’t know, geeky – and I just thought, auditions are coming up, I’m going into my fifth year and my parents have never missed a game. That’s dedication, and obviously I know they love me, but man, they really love me.”

Sometimes love comes at a cost, even if a joyful one at that. So Ally pops out her calculator to start crunching numbers and figures out her parents, Joseph and Nancy, have traveled more than 30,000 miles over the past four years “to be a part of something that is really special to me.”

And it’s not just the miles, driving or flying. It’s hotel rooms and meals, and not to mention the cost of those personalized DCC T-shirts they wear, proclaiming on the back to be “Ally’s Mom” and “Ally’s Dad,” along with taking Ally shopping, of course, on those weekends. Those expenses to share 42 weekends with their daughter living in the Dallas area have to add up.

“Thanks, Mom and Dad,” Ally says, “and I guess it’s a good thing I got a free-ride scholarship to college because I’m guessing it’s balancing out now.”