Dancers keeping Clipper fans’ ‘spirit’ up

FOXSportsWest.com
July 10, 2011

Check out FOXSportsWest.com’s gallery of the Los Angeles Clipper cheerleaders tryouts held July 9.

Now that the NBA has decided to join the NFL in the “Leagues in Lockout” club, someone has to keep the spirit alive.

For the Los Angeles Clippers, that responsibility falls on the shoulders of a group of young, enthusiastic dancers appropriately called the Clippers Spirit.

You’ve probably seen the group of 16 young ladies on T.V. or in person at games before and thought “oh what pretty girls” – or at least that what’s your wife thought – but smiling isn’t their only skill listed on their resume. And what it takes to earn a job starts years, decades even, before the day of preliminary auditions.

Lydia Mercado is a 20-year-old nursing student at Cal State Fullerton who’s been dancing for 15 years. After enjoying her time on Fullerton’s team she decided to try the professional level and continue with the art that has taken up over half her life. That desire led her to where she was on Saturday: standing in the front row of about 200 young women- ranging from 18 to mid-20s-with a piece of paper with a No. 2 safety pinned to her athletic briefs hoping to become the newest member of the Clippers Spirit. Those 200 are only the new hopeful ones who have never held a position on the team. The incumbents get the opportunity to skip the first cut and join on the second of three phases of the dance portion of the audition. All finalists must be interviewed before chosen regardless of previous standing.

A good sign for Mercado is that her story compares to that of Jessie Carter, a Clippers Spirit member who volunteered to help with the first portion of the audition. Her mother was an NFL cheerleader and Carter grew up dancing, spending her days and weekends going to school then heading to class. She couldn’t bare thought of leaving that world behind when she went to college.

At 18 she danced for the San Diego Chargers and now after coming to Los Angeles to attend USC, she’s spent the past two seasons working for the Clippers.

[Correction: She was with the Clippers for 2 years and was a Charger Girl last year ~ sasha]

“You get immediate best friends,” Carter says of the experience.

Sure, she could dance other places. But she can’t find the same sisterhood. Carter, who just turned 21, so far has always fulfilled the role as “the baby” of the teams she’s been on (the age range sometimes can go as high as 35 on some professional teams) has relied on that greatly since leaving home.

It keeps Carter coming back for more. And she’s not the only one.

Brittany has been with the Spirit for four years and auditioned for her fifth season on Saturday. Part of their job involves being brand and community goodwill ambassadors right in Los Angeles and around the world. Literally. The Spirit just returned from a two-week NBA event in China where they put on several performances and represented the Clippers organization on an international level.

For some, being on a highly publicized dance team in the entertainment capitol of the world is a whole new and rather daunting world. For others, like Anasheh Abramiyan, it’s old hat. Abramiyan went to school down the street at where she donned a white sweater and extra-large pom-poms as a USC Song Girl.

“You have to be in shape. You have to work hard. You have to stay fit and be healthy and give it your all no matter what.”

Whether they are balancing these responsibilities with school or a job, these young professional have to hold themselves to some of the same standards as the athletes they represent. This standard is raised the second a league goes into a lockout.

Spirit Director Audrea Harris made it clear to the potential new members that they were looking for only girls who were highly motivated because as long as the lockout persisted and the players were unable to be associated with the organization, the Spirit would be the sole representation. The Spirit only rehearses twice a week, but it is up to the members to keep in shape without the dancing for hours at games in addition to being ready to make all those extra community appearances.

There is little room for margin of error. Several judges, including Fox Sports’ own John Jackson, are on hand to make sure the young women picked have the right balance of dance technique, showmanship, personality and work ethic to be able to handle the job if they are chosen.

NBA fans across the nation probably feel almost responsible to keep hope alive as they wait for the return of their favorite league. But they can rest assured that those helping them along are highly qualified.