TU Ladies Bring It On
Two students spend time outside the classroom at M&T Bank Stadium
By Lauren Slavin
The Towerlight
Like many of Towson University’s commuters, Courtney wakes up at 7 a.m. to prepare for an hour drive, drives in circles around a packed parking garage, and goes to her 9 a.m. class.
Sweatpants are the norm, and dabbing on mascara is an effort. If it weren’t for her Ravens bag, lanyard, shoes and accessories, it would be difficult to remember she doesn’t spend her Sundays in Cook Library, but cheering at M&T Bank Stadium.
“They think we wake up looking like this. I try to keep it on the DL at school, because if people know I’m a cheerleader, at class I feel like I can’t just roll out of bed and wear sweatpants to class,” Courtney said.
Courtney L. is among several Ravens cheerleaders who have spent time off the field in classrooms at Towson University, but is one of only two current students on the squad.
Courtney
Courtney, a senior, has been a Ravens cheerleader as long as she’s been a Towson student. Junior Brittany W. is only starting her rookie season after attending an open tryout in March.
The women could not give their full last names for privacy reasons stipulated in their Ravens contracts.
Both girls balance full-time class schedules, part-time jobs and weekly appearances at home games with the Baltimore Ravens.
“It’s all about prioritizing,” Brittany said. “It’s difficult. At times it can be stressful. It’s like having 10 jobs when you have five classes.”
But this job is one Brittany has dreamed about since she was 10 years old.
She started cheerleading at age five, and at 10, one year after the Ravens won their first and only Super Bowl, Brittany participated in the Lil’ Ravens cheer program.
She continued cheering through high school, eventually becoming the captain of her varsity squad.
Courtney, on the other hand, had never cheered before she tried out for the Ravens. She came from a dance background and originally applied to Towson University for their dance program.
But an unsuccessful attempt at making Towson’s 13-straight national championship winning dance team left a hole in her extra-curricular activities.
“My nerves got the best of me, so I messed up really bad,” Courtney said. “I think that prepared me, because two months later, I found out about the tryouts for Ravens.”
Courtney’s experiences as a Ravens’ veteran cheerleader have helped Brittany through the Ravens rigorous practices, according to Ravens dance team coach Karen Kreitzer, a Towson University alumna.
“Our veterans really help guide our rookies, so it’s great to have Courtney, who’s a great dancer, great leader, help guide Brittany, just help navigate her first year with the program,” she said.
The 21 women who make up the dance team portion of the squad, which has 41 females and 20 males in all, have the challenge of learning 14 mini-routines performed during time outs or short breaks and two minute-and-a-half routines the cheerleaders do between the first and second quarters of the game and the third and fourth quarters of the game.
The dances are precision based, and during practices they learn a few steps of complex choreography at a time until each cheerleader can perform in synch.
“It pushes you, because at the end of the day, you’re studying for exams, school’s stressful, and this is just an awesome way to have fun, get your workout in, and forget about school for three hours,” Kreitzer said.
And the practice pays off when the cheerleaders accompany the team through the stadium tunnel and onto the field.
“Running out of the tunnel before every game is definitely exciting: to hear the crowd getting pumped up, especially the first Steelers game. I think I teared up a little bit running out of that tunnel,” Brittany said.
But Courtney and Brittany agreed the best part about being a Ravens cheerleader isn’t the performing or celebrity status.
“Forget about the bar appearances. I love the charity stuff,” Courtney said. “It’s an amazing feeling to be a role model for little girls like that. You don’t realize how much of a role model you are for them and they look up to you so much. You just want to give the best impression you can for them and be like, ‘Well, look, I’m in school, too and this is what I want to be after cheerleading’ so they don’t think this is what I’m going to be the rest of my life.”
Since starting at Towson, Courtney has changed her major to business administration with a concentration in marketing. Brittany is also a business major, but with a concentration in management. Working with the Ravens has provided a major networking opportunity for both women.
“I’ve picked up so many business cards,” Courtney said. “I can’t imagine my life without the Ravens. It helped me mature, it helped me become who I am today, it
helped me with my communication skills, my business skills … just things you would experience in the real world having a real job out of college I’ve experienced early on.”But before they can get a job with the Ravens or any other business, Courtney and Brittany have to graduate, which could be difficult in a town with loyalties as fierce as Baltimore’s.
“I have a Steelers [fan] teacher this year. She announced the first day she was from Pittsburgh and I was like, ‘Please don’t let this affect my grade,” Courtney said.
