NFL teams attracting older cheerleaders in try-outs for Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders

Laura Stone
TheStar.com
5/13/2012

Sharon Simmons knew she had to be a cheerleader when she donned an outfit for the Dallas Cowboys squadat a fitness competition in Las Vegas.

That’s when the long-ago dreams of really wielding pom-poms for the blue-and-white-clad NFL cheerleading team came rushing back.

“I thought at that very moment, ‘I need to do this,’” said the Carrollton, Texas real estate agent. And when the try-outs were held early this month, she was there.

There was only one catch, and no, it wasn’t her body being thrown in the air. At 55, Simmons — an avid fitness competitor once known for her one-armed push-up — is a bit older than the traditional cheerleading demographic, which hovers somewhere between legal drinking age and just shy of 30.

As if to compound the contrast, she’s also a two-time grandmother.

For five months, she took choreography classes. She drew a lot of attention, for both herself and her book, Fifty Fit and Fabulous. At the tryouts, alas, she got knocked out after the first round.

“Fitness is a little bit different” where, unlike in cheerleading, “I didn’t have to bend like a rubber band,” she concedes.

It’s tough out there for a grandma.

Still, cheerleaders say they are seeing more of Simmons and her ilk, a sign that squads may be ready to embrace a more mature dancing queen.

“I would not be surprised if there were older women on the squads in the future,” said Laura Vikmanis, a fourth-year Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader.

At 43, Vikmanis is something of a Golden-Girl idol for the aging cheerleader. She’s the oldest on the Ben-Gals squad and proudly declares that some of the girls are closer in age to her teenage daughters than they are to her.

The dietician got into cheerleading after her divorce, when she started focusing more on her health and rededicating herself to dancing, her passion.

She credits running, weight training and eating well with helping her maintain her 36-26-34 physique — “you definitely have to be in shape, because you’re wearing a very small outfit” — but says she never felt her age held her back, although she admits to working harder than the younger women.

“My body doesn’t respond to exercise and dieting as well as when I was younger,” she said.

If it sounds the stuff of Hollywood, it very well could be: New Line Entertainment has picked up the rights to Vikmanis’s life story, told in her book “It’s Not About the Pom-Poms.” A movie could be out as early as next year.

“If you have the skills to get on the squad most teams will end up taking you, so it’s just a matter of putting yourself out there,” said Vikmanis.

In Toronto, at least, that future seems pretty far off. Both the Raptors and Argonauts have dancing and cheerleading squads, respectively, but their highest age is typically about 30.

Not that they’re against the idea.

“Power to them,” said Amberley Waddell, dance co-ordinator for the Raptors. “That’s great, as long as you’re into it and have the ability that the other girls do, then why not.” (Tryouts for the 2013 Raptors Dance Pak are happening on July 14 and 15, at the ACC).

In the U.S. at least, the term grandmother may also be a tad overrated. Simmons isn’t even the first grandmother, or even the second to cheer in the NFL — that honour goes to Susie Sanchez of the Oakland Raiderettes, who made the squad when she was 37, the same year her teenage daughter had a baby. (The first grandmother was another Raiderette, Kathy Ferrin).

Sanchez tried out five times before she scored a spot on the squad in 2011, although she failed to reclaim it for next season.

“I always wanted to be a professional dancer, and despite having children, being married, having a career, I never let go of that,” she said.

“I didn’t make it because I’m a grannie. I made it because I’m a dancer.”