SC grads cheering for Ravens

By Pat Stoetzer, Staff Writer
Carroll County Times
August 12, 2010

When Ravens fans flock to M&T Bank Stadium this season, they’ll have two chances to watch local cheerleaders in action.

For the past four seasons, the football team’s cheerleading unit has featured South Carroll graduate Adriene B. on the squad (the team’s policy is to use first names and last initial, so she goes by that on the Ravens’ website). This fall, she gets a county companion and fellow SC alum in Megan A., who graduated in 2008 and has plenty of cheerleading background.

Megan cheered at South Carroll and competitively for the Maryland Twisters, which earned her a trip to Orlando, Fla., in 2006 for an international all-star event. She spent some time cheering for the Baltimore Blast, but when this year’s Ravens’ tryouts came around Megan didn’t balk at the chance to make the team.

“I’ve wanted to forever,” she said July 30 at a training camp appearance with Adriene and two other teammates. “Since I started cheering in fifth grade, I’ve wanted to do it with the Ravens.”

Megan said she survived a series of cuts and an interview process before making the team. Once she joined the squad in March, it was time to gather for the annual calendar shoot.

The calendars were unveiled in late July and this year’s includes photos of every cheerleader on the squad.

And that means two former South Carroll students.

“I like it, I mean it’s Carroll County, represent!” said Adriene, a University of Maryland grad. “It was a big thing when I went to Maryland to cheer, and then with the Ravens. I was waiting for someone else to come around with me.”

Adriene, a Mount Airy native, is a popular Ravens cheerleader and a calendar veteran – she was chosen for the cover in 2008 and 2009.

Megan, a Westminster native who attends Stevenson University, was part of the Blast’s calendar last year. Now, she joins her fellow former Cavalier, and the rest of the Ravens cheerleaders, in the current calendar.

“It’s awesome,” said Megan, who got to travel to the Bahamas for the photo shoot. “It was so exciting, but it was completely different because we went out of the country. It was so much fun, like a free vacation. I think the shots turned out great.”

The Ravens’ cheerleaders have been making appearances around the region as the football season nears. At the McDaniel College appearance in late July, the four cheerleaders posed for pictures with fans and signed just about anything placed before them.

Spectators had footballs, jerseys, calendars and T-shirts, among other items waiting for personal signatures from the cheerleaders. A line quickly formed and the afternoon temperatures were hot, but the quartet of girls never stopped smiling and chatting with their fans.

“I’m trying to get involved as much as I can in my rookie year,” Megan said. “I love what I do, it’s just fun to me.”