Saintsations, Tiger Girls, Golden Girls Reflect on Experience, Friendships
By Kayla Randall
The Daily Reveille
“A Tiger on Saturdays and a Saint on Sundays” holds true for the Golden Girls and Tiger Girls who dance their way to the Saintsations after graduation.
An insanely competitive career, young women who aspire to be professional cheerleaders must devote their lives to dancing to get to the top of the pyramid, the NFL.
For four former Golden Girls and Tiger Girls, agreed their experiences and relationships cultivated at LSU are why they became Saintsations, the official cheerleaders of the New Orleans Saints.
DEFYING STEREOTYPESMost Saintsations dancers are not full-time. Former Tiger Girl and Saintsation Heidi Walker was a pharmaceutical representative while working and continued since then.
Former Golden Girl and Saintsation Harmony Thibodeaux became a professor during her time as a Saintsation and balanced teaching classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with cheering for the Saints on Sundays.
“One day I was in class, and one of my students raised her hand with a question,” Thibodeaux said. “She was like ‘I went to the game last night, and I swear I saw a cheerleader on the field who looked like you. Was that you?’”
Thibodeaux was older than most Saintsations when she auditioned at 25 after receiving her master’s degree. She said NFL cheerleaders deserve to be paid more so they don’t have to juggle so many other jobs, while maintaining their bodies and looks.
Despite the salary, Thibodeaux said Saintsations was a valuable experience and she treasures her time with the Golden Girls.
“When you think of the stereotype of an NFL cheerleader, you don’t think, ‘Oh she’s a college professor,’ or, ‘Oh she’s an accountant,’” Thibodeaux said. “Women can really do anything, and most of these women are beautiful, brilliant, kind and funny, and they inspire me so much.”
MAKING THE CUT
Even before college and the Saintsations, Walker danced all her life.
After graduating from LSU with a kinesiology degree, she quickly became a Saintsation. Hailing from Lake Charles, Louisiana, Walker said she didn’t know much about Saintsations but auditioned nevertheless.
There were three days of auditioning. On the first day, dancers worked on routines, then on the second day those who made the cut were chosen for professional business interviews and to take a football knowledge test. Finally, applicants danced again on day three, and many were asked on-the-spot questions by supervisors.
Since graduating from LSU in 2010, this year is her first not working as a Saintsation. Walker said the organization only allows women to be Saintsations for four years.
“People always say, ‘You’ve retired,’ and I like to feel like I graduated,” Walker said. “It feels a little bit younger.”
There is one exception to the Saintsation four year rule. If a woman is selected as a prestigious Pro-Bowl cheerleader, she gets an extra year, which Walker accomplished.
Walker’s journey was not easy, as her first attempt for the Tiger Girls did not go as planned.
“I made it as a sophomore, and I think that made me appreciate it a little bit more because I had to really work for it,” Walker said.
She stayed on for her remaining three years at the university.
Walker recently judged the Tiger Girl auditions, and she said she now realizes how special a dancer must be to be considered.
“The talent gets better and better every year,” Walker said. “Every time I watch I’m like, ‘I wouldn’t make this team this year.’”
SPECIAL BOND
Walker said she loved her time with the Tiger Girls and calls it a combination of playing a sport and being in a sorority. The team participated in competitions, sporting events and did promotional and still had what Walker deemed “girl bonding.”
The dancers are forced to hang out multiple times a week during practices and events, and their relationships become essential, Walker said.
“You don’t have much time for a social life, but it’s OK because those are all your friends,” Walker said. “Not being on the team this year, I’ve kind of laughed that I don’t have any friends anymore.”
One of those friends is Maggie DeWitt, a former Tiger Girl, four-year Saintsation and current New Orleans Pelicans dancer. DeWitt and Walker danced together with the Tiger Girls and Saintsations.
“I feel like it made LSU that much more enjoyable,” DeWitt said. “The girls that I met in Tiger Girls, I’m still friends with a lot of them today. Some of them we actually did Saintsations together, and some we’re now on Pelicans together.”
DeWitt said most people don’t know what it’s like to be on a competitive dance team like Tiger Girls or a professional cheerleader like Saintsations, so they don’t understand the level of depth of their relationships.
“When you’re on a competitive dance team, you’re together more than you probably want to be together,” DeWitt said. “Christmas break every year as a Tiger Girl, you spend all of that break with your teammates and not your family because you’re practicing for nationals. So you’re with each other 12 hours a day, and you form bonds with these girls that you really can’t describe or replace.”
Heidey Hanks, a Tiger Girl and former Golden Girl and marketing senior, and Morgan Welsh, a former Golden Girl and Saintsation, know this bond well. Despite living in different cities, the two still talk on a daily basis.
“We’re like best friends,” Welsh said. “We’re still really close. Golden Girls opened a lot of doors for me just as a person helping me grow, but it gave me a lot of strong friendships along the way.”
Hanks met Welsh when the two were Golden Girls together. Welsh said she was initially apprehensive about Hanks.
“My first year on the team, they made us stand by each other,” Welsh said. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m standing by a new girl, got to be on my Ps and Qs.’ Then we ended up becoming the best of friends. I mean, she gave me flowers for my birthday.”
“In both Golden Girls and Tiger Girls, you never get sick of each other,” Hanks said. “We all have the same drive and focus. It’s a sorority in its own way.”
