Former RHS cheerleader makes Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

By Travis Simpson
Courier News
August 24 2014

When Ashley Prochazka grew up cheering for the Russellville Cyclones cheer and dance team, she had no idea she would one day take the field as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.

Prochazka won the spot earlier this summer in a competition against 500 ladies from 36 states and four countries.

But it began on the sidelines at Cyclone football games and under the goal at basketball games.

“In a way, being on the cheer squads, it taught me how to be an ambassador,” she said. “People look at you a lot more than someone who is in the stands. You have to represent your program well. Your school is your brand.”

Prochazka has been involved in competitive cheer since fourth grade and has garnered just about every accolade available for active athletes in the sport. She won a national and world championship in 2009 with a traveling cheer squad from Dallas, Texas and cheered four years for the Baylor University Bears where she earned a bachelor’s degree in health sciences pre-physical therapy.

Still — she never quite dreamed it would go this far. She became interested in the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders in high school when a former teammate tried out and failed to make the team.

“I guess that’s when the idea first came in my head,” she said. “The Cowboys were the only football team I ever paid attention to, so it put that thought in my mind.”

Prochazka first tried out in 2013 but didn’t make the team. In her words, the try-out process was more than she expected. When she returned a year later to try again, she was ready.

“I think it made me grow a lot,” she said. “It was my first time to not achieve something in cheer that I had gone after. It was very humbling. I think it was God letting me know that not everything is handed to you. I’ve always worked hard, but I learned that for some things you have to work extra hard.”

Prochazka’s rise through the ranks was documented for season eight of Country Music Television’s (CMT) “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team,” a reality show which documents the difficulties involved in being selected for America’s most well-known cheer squad.

The show, which first premiered in 2006, shows the progression each candidate must follow in order to make the final roster and take the field on opening day at Cowboys Stadium. First comes an open audition “cattle call,” then personal interviews, uniform fittings, BMI testing, physical fitness testing, etiquette training, mock media interviews and calender shoots.

The girls are even tested on knowledge of the Dallas Cowboys history, the NFL in general, the rules of the game, general history and current events. That was something Prochazka hadn’t expected on her first go-round, but came well-studied for round two.

“This year, I studied a lot,” she said. “Last year I didn’t know what to expect, but this year we made study guides. I’ve been out of college for a year now, but I was studying like I would have for a test. We [other applicants] would quiz each other, ask questions. Ultimately, we’re out there representing the organization. We aren’t just cheer and dance. We have to be able to hold a conversation, so they have to test us like that.”

Participants undergo dance choreography tests and are hand-picked by a panel of experts. Scoring is based on physical appearance, fitness, dance style, poise, grace, intelligence and showmanship.

From there, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleading camp opens and the ladies undergo more tests. A woman can be cut at any time. Of the 500 who tried out, only 47 were brought to camp and only 39 survived to officially make the squad.

“Every night could be cut night,” Prochazka said. “You could be let go. You have to learn over 30 routines in a month-and-a-half period just to perform in front of the judges each night.”

Common reasons to be cut include failure to correctly perform dance routines, failure to display an elite level of skill and a lack of physical fitness or meet the body fat requirements.

“Every year is not guaranteed. You have to try out again each year,” Prochazka said. “The veterans don’t join until finals, so they do get an advantage, but they still aren’t guaranteed a spot on the team every year.”

Prochazka said she believes she is exactly where she is meant to be. Her faith is important to her. There’s a time to every season, she reminds herself, including a time to dance.

“No matter how great a dancer you are, sometimes it might turn out that this isn’t where you are supposed to be and that’s hard,” she explained. “I think that’s one of the hardest things for people to take in — when their plans don’t match what God wants.

“I have been blessed by making the teams I have tried out for. God has given me the talent to be on some of the best cheer teams in the nation and the world. When I didn’t make it last year, it was hard for me to accept that.”

But she didn’t give up. According to Prochazka, God had put the desire in her heart for a reason.

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team airs at 8 p.m. Fridays on CMT.