Gayle’s Hot Cheerleader

By HG Helps
Editor-at-Large
Jamaica Observer
June 29, 2011

She gave it everything she had, especially when Chris Gayle was taking bowlers apart in the Indian Premier League.

Yet though the game of cricket to her was like trying to learn a foreign language, internationally acclaimed cheerleader Genienne Samuels gave it her best shot.

A cheerleader for the National Football League team, the Washington Redskins for eight years, Genienne got into the cheerleading posse at the Washington Wizards National Basketball Association (NBA) two years ago, and pushed on to face unlikely eyes when she performed cheerleading duties for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL between March and April this year.

“As a Redskins cheerleader, they asked us to come and be a part of their cheerleading team for the Royal Challengers,” Genienne told the Observer during a celebrity sport camp for youngsters in Kingston on Monday.

The sport camp forms part of the RuJohn Foundation’s initiative and was held in conjunction with the SuperClubs Foundation. Another is slated for Negril later this week.

“A group of us accepted the offer, we went to India and got a chance to work with some of the young women there who were interested in cheerleading and dancing and more importantly, we got to travel with the cricket team and actually dance and cheer at their games,” said Genienne, who confirmed her ignorance about cricket, but soon got into the groove once she realised how friendly the game was.

“At the beginning I did not understand cricket at all, but after the first game you definitely catch on and then you also pay attention to the crowd interaction, so when the crowd was cheering then it’s time for you to cheer as well,” she said.

Gayle, the big-hitting Jamaican and discarded West Indies captain who lit up the IPL following his belated appearance, left his mark on the experienced cheerleader, who departed India close to the IPL final which involved RCB and Chennai Super Kings, led by India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“I do remember Chris Gayle… he was one of the star players. The main thing was his speed (how fast he scored) and how he used the paddle (bat) to hit the ball.

“There was another player who was also very good. I can’t remember his name, but the crowd gave a lot of support for the cricket players. All the games were extremely exciting, but Gayle was the star player,” she said.

The television host and business owner in Richmond, Virginia, came away with a greater appreciation of cricket and widened her knowledge about the culture and way of life of the people of the world’s second most populous country.

“Cricket is such a huge sport in India and they accepted us as cheerleaders, even though they weren’t used to having cheerleaders at their stadiums.

“At home (Bangalore), we got a great reaction. When we went away to the other teams, like Bombay (Mumbai Indians), they didn’t take to us too well.

“It’s a very conservative country, and we had outfits that were small skirt bottoms and shorts with small tops and our midsections were showing at times and they just weren’t as accepting of that… just because it’s India and the women there are very covered, and so having come out on the field in that attire, I think some people didn’t really appreciate it.

“I definitely came away with a greater appreciation for cricket. Before I went to India I had never heard of the sport of cricket. When I first looked at it, I thought that it was like baseball, but then it was very different as well.

“It’s a very interesting sport that requires a lot of skill and endurance, so it was my first introduction to cricket and I would definitely do it again.

“It was also my first time in India and it was an eye-opener. We learnt a lot, we experienced a lot, it’s a very different culture. Sometimes we take things for granted in the United States and don’t realise it and when you go and visit other countries you realise that you should be very grateful and thankful for the things you have back home,” Genienne said.

Describing herself as a tomboy growing up… one who went fishing, watching American football, basketball and boxing with her father in Richmond, Genienne at one time fancied herself as a runner of merit and had no idea that she would have ended up in cheerleading.

It was during high school that she caught the cheerleading fever and never looked back.

“I actually started as a runner, cross country and middle distance runner in middle and high school. I had the opportunity to run at the University of Richmond, but decided to cheer instead,” said the multi-talented 36-year-old, who also graduated from George Washington University.

“After picking up cheerleading in high school, I did it in college, went to a Redskins game and decided to audition for the Redskins team.

“It is a requirement for most professional cheerleaders in the United States that you have to have a full time job or be a full-time student, so it’s really an extra-curricular activity for most of us.

“Right now, I own my own consulting business, so I do a lot of contracting work for the state of Maryland, including quality and process improvement and auditing.

“Right now I have three people back home taking care of the projects that I would normally be working on, so they are putting in double hours for me.”

On her second visit to Jamaica and loving every bit of the island so far, Genienne is considering her future in cheerleading with a view to pursuing other options.

“I just completed my 10th year total as a cheerleader, so I am thinking that this might be it. I am ready to start a family and focus on my career a little bit more. Cheerleading for the NBA is very time consuming.

“It requires a special discipline. On a professional level, most of the cheerleaders are dancers, so those dancers have a lot of background,

tap, jazz, ballet… they have a lot of technique.

“The other side of cheerleading is where you see a lot of gymnastics.

“It really is turning into a sport because you have to be extremely athletic to do a lot of the stunts and a lot of the tumbling that is required for cheerleading,” she said, pointing to the importance of keeping trim and sticking to the right foods.

“My diet varies, sometime I don’t eat the best of foods, but I try to stay away from a lot of fried foods.

“I focus mainly on protein from fish, chicken and steak now and then, but I try to stay away from a lot of pastas and I definitely eat my three meals and two snacks a day to help keep my metabolism up. So because I am very active and still work out, I am able to eat a lot of the foods that I like to eat,” she said.