LEADING LADIES: Fall River’s Melendez Among More than 300 Cheerleading Hopefuls
The path to earning a spot on the Patriots’ sideline next season began Saturday morning at the Dana-Farber Field House at Gillette Stadium.
No, Bill Belichick wasn’t holding an open tryout. Instead, the New England Patriots Cheerleaders held their annual auditions, the first step in building their 28-person squad for 2010 from a pool of more than 300 bright-eyed hopefuls that kicked, twirled and high-stepped in front of the judges.
Tiffany Melendez, 22, of Fall River, was one of the participants.“My mom found this audition and told me about it Thursday,” she said. “My mom printed out the form and told me, ‘You’re going.’
“I have a little bit of a dancing background. I started dancing when I was 17 and have been doing it ever since. It’s something that I love to do.”
Candidates performed various dance routines in front of the panel and were judged on dance ability, showmanship, overall appearance and level of physical fitness.
After Saturday’s audition, the field will be narrowed to approximately 30 semi-finalists, who will be invited back for final auditions on Saturday, March 6.
“I hope that I can make it pretty far, if not make the team,” Melendez said before heading in front of the judges. “If I don’t make it, at least it’s a great experience and I will get to figure out what the audition process is like since this is my first time. We’ll see how it goes.”
