Traveling from far and wide to audition for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

On the Sidelines
International Appeal
Kristi Scales
DallasCowboys.com
July 6, 2011

How much appeal do the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have internationally? A quick review of the birthplaces for several of the nearly 300 young women who auditioned last month proves that the dream of growing up to become one of America’s Sweethearts extends well beyond the 48 contiguous United States.

If this were a high school reunion, the winner of the “longest distance traveled” award would go to the contestant from Australia.* It was easy to spot her: she was being trailed by an Australian television crew. The 26-year-old from Sydney has cheered for an Aussie professional rugby team the past eight years. She was a good dancer and made it all the way to the finals. Did she make the cut and get invited to DCC summer boot camp? Yes, she did. Congrats!

In terms of distance, the Australian barely beats out the 25-year-old originally from Vietnam. According to Google, DFW to Sydney is 8,619 air miles; DFW to Hanoi is 8,441. As far as I know, this is the first Vietnamese contestant we’ve had. Of course, the Cowboys already boast the NFL’s first Vietnamese-American player, linebacker Dat Nguyen.

Asia was particularly well represented this year. In addition to Vietnam, we had a 19-year-old student and part-time waitress originally from South Korea (over 6,800 miles from Dallas). And I’m not sure the 27-year-old from Japan spoke a lot of English, but she had some hip-hop moves (6,473 air miles from Tokyo to DFW).

We had a girl who was born in Italy but lives in Oklahoma (can you find good gnocchi in Soonerland?), and also had a girl born in Acapulco, Mexico who now lives in Las Vegas.

And if I tell you we had a girl from Georgia that moved to New York, no big deal. But it’s not that Georgia. It’s the Republic of Georgia (former Soviet Union), which is more than 6,700 miles from Dallas. She also earned an invite to camp.

Let’s give honorable mention to the girl from Oahu. Technically, Hawaii’s not international, but 3,800 air miles from Honolulu to DFW is a long flight. Plus, she’s a 22-year-old nurses’ aide at an Army medical center, so kudos to her.

By my unofficial count (I’m jotting down notes as the girls introduce themselves to judges, not looking at official entries), we had contestants from 32 states. From the insurance agent in Miami to the two girls from Seattle, contestants literally came to Dallas from across the country.

Let’s see … the hairdresser from New Jersey, the girl from a cherry farm in Michigan, the surf instructor from Utah (indoor simulator because there’s no coast in Utah), the female boxer from Iowa, Miss Teen Texas from Lufkin.

Seeing the 32-year-old single mother of a nine-year-old child audition was inspiring; she beat ovarian cancer two years ago.

In fact, we had several mothers audition this year, including a lady with five kids, ages 1 to 17. That’s right, five kids. The fact her stomach is flatter than mine is depressing – gotta start my diet as soon as I finish this box of Milk Duds.

The registered nurse, the geography professor, the math teacher, the girl from the town of 21 people in Iowa, the Britney Spears impersonator (no kidding), the stay-at-home mom of the two-year-old and six-month-old, the girl who owns her own cake decorating company, the girl who works at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, the nursing home receptionist …

Which of these contestants will you see in next year’s Swimsuit Edition? Can’t tell you. Not because we can’t spill the beans before CMT’s DCC: Making the Team reality show airs. I can’t tell because, even if they survived the final cut, they still have three months of DCC boot camp ahead of them.

Auditions are just the first step. The hardest work begins this month.

* Click here for more on Angela Nicotera, the training camp candidate from Australia.