Titan-ic ‘Whirlwind’
By Chris Yow
The Moulton Advertiser
When Danny and Detra Smith visited their daughter on Oct. 29, 2012, in Starkville, Miss., the couple thought it was a typical dinner with their daughter Hannah. The then-20-year-old senior at Mississippi State, however, had something else up her sleeve.
Hannah informed her parents she had dismissed herself from the university, had applied to the University of North Alabama and someone had subleased her apartment. She was coming home in the middle of the semester of her senior year, and Hannah’s parents knew exactly what was happening.
“Education comes first in my family,” Hannah said. “But they knew right then that I was going to try out for the Titans.”
The 2009 graduate of Lawrence County High School didn’t mean she wanted to play alongside former LCHS great David Stewart for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, but she did want to cheer him on like she’d done for several years while her father coached him through little leagues and high school.
Hannah said she begged her parents from the time she was 18 years old for a chance to try out for the NFL squad’s cheerleading team, but school was to come first.
“They told me I would have to either be finished with school or really close to finished,” Hannah said.
Mid-semester of her senior year is pretty close.
Now, she commutes two and a half hours each Monday and Wednesday to Florence from Nashville to attend classes where she is majoring in mass communications with a focus on public relations.
Hannah said she wants to work in the sports and entertainment industry, and what better way to get in the door than being on the sidelines on an NFL Sunday?
The sacrifices she’s made haven’t been easy, and Hannah still struggles with the day-to-day stress of waking up around 5:30 a.m. and not returning home until midnight most nights.
“I go to school on Monday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. until 8:45 p.m.,” she said. “Then I get back and practice nearly every night. I work on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and some Saturdays, and I’m on the field on Sunday.”
But her studies still come first.
Despite being in a nightlife mecca, Hannah spends her Friday nights and Saturdays in the library studying for school or for the internship she is currently serving.
Luckily, though, Hannah said her professors have worked with her and been as helpful as they can be.
“They’ve been such a big help and worked with me in every way they can,” she said, giving her a chance to be part of several aspects of life in Nashville.
The company she is serving her internship with has offered her a job when she finishes her degree from UNA, and Hannah couldn’t be happier to stay in Nashville.
“I love Nashville,” she said. “I don’t ever want to leave.”
Why would she? She’s part of the Titans cheerleading squad, an elite group of 27 girls and living her dream.
How she became part of that elite group of dancers is something Hannah is proud to say she worked hard to accomplish.
Hannah was very nervous at the try out, and found herself to be among nearly 200 applicants. The process is identical to that seen on the CMT reality show “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders”.
She made it through each cut and found herself as a finalist with the other 26 girls.
“I didn’t know how many girls they were going to take. I didn’t know if I had a shot or not,” she said. “After I made it, we did 48 days straight of training and had to pass five physical fitness exams and a written exam.
“You’re not on the team until you pass those exams.”
The toughness of those physical and mental tests was something Hannah was prepared for by years of dance experience and being taught hard work from her parents.
“It wasn’t easy, but I was determined to make that squad more than anything,” she said. “It’s been a whirlwhind.”
Hannah is the only red-haired cheerleader on the team, and as a rookie that isn’t always a good thing.
“I had a hard time at first. It’s not easy being a rookie in the NFL,” she said. “It’s not like people think. We don’t just do our makeup and hair then shake our pom poms on Sunday. There is a lot of hard work that goes into it.”
If she misses a cue or a step in the dances, the consequences are tough.
“Messing up as a rookie isn’t allowed. I have a lot of stress on me,” she said.
And when she messes up, there is one major identifying feature that sets her apart from the others.
“A lot of people think it’s cool being the only redhead, but if I mess up, it’s obvious. It benefitted me during tryouts because I stood out, but it’s a lot of pressure now,” she said.
How Hannah deals with the pressure of being a rookie in the NFL is different from any other member of the team, though. Hannah has a friend just inside the white lines every week.
Titans’ offensive lineman Stewart has been a shoulder to lean on at times.
“David gave me a lot of advice when I started,” she said. “He told me about his rookie year, and he told me to just ‘be a pro.’ Know what I’m supposed to do and do it correctly. Always to go in with a smile on your face and to leave practice knowing you accomplished what you set out to do.”
Those words have allowed Hannah to find a way to work hard and keep her composure each week.
Hannah and Stewart are the only two members of the Titans organization who attended the same high school and the same college. The two have a unique relationship for an NFL player and cheerleader. The NFL rules don’t allow the two to mingle very often, but there is a difference with Stewart and Hannah.
“I grew up watching the Titans on TV and watching David play when he played for my dad and in high school, college and now with the Titans,” Hannah said.
That relationship with him and her fandom sometimes comes out a little too much on Sundays, too.
“When he’s on the field, I can get crazy. My coach tells me that she’s glad I’m such a big fan, but sometimes I have to tone it down,” she laughed.
Stewart isn’t the only connection Hannah has in the NFL, though. She said she has friends on nine different NFL teams from college.
“It’s cool to see them because we go in and out of the same tunnel as the visiting team,” she said. “Which can be kind of cool or kind of awkward depending on who wins the game.”
The players, though, are never mean or out of the way with the cheerleaders, however. In fact, Hannah said she can tell a significant difference in the NFL and college football.
Obviously, in Alabama, fans and players of the two teams participating in the Iron Bowl this weekend are not fond of one another, but in the NFL it’s different.
“The biggest difference in the NFL and college is everybody is there for the same reason. It’s a job,” she said. “Guys that play on the Titans have friends on teams across the league because they played college ball together.”
Hannah said she hopes to continue as a Titans cheerleader in the near future, but knows her time will be short with the team because she plans to marry soon and won’t continue her career with the cheerleaders after that.
“I want to have a successful marriage, so I’ll probably hang it up when I get married. Right now, though, I have a very supportive fiancé who is letting me live out my dreams,” Hannah said.
Her dream of being an NFL cheerleader has come true. She’s been offered a job in the field where she’ll soon earn her degree, and she is marrying her best friend of more than 10 years, but she says she’s never lost sight of herself or where she’s from.
“I’m Hannah Smith,” she said. “Just an everyday person who is lucky to have these opportunities.”
