Former Rally Cat a step closer to being Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader
Working towards her dream
By Will Vandervort
MyOrangeUpdate.com
CLEMSON — It was just another boring night at home for Collin Sarvis. A freshman at J.L. Mann High School at the time, her school work was done, dinner had already been served and it was time to wind down for the evening. So just like any other night, the Greenville, SC native got on the internet — to learn.
Sarvis was not brushing up on literature or trying to figure out an algebraic formula, though math is her favorite subject. Rather, she was studying the art of dancing and trying to learn new ways she could get better at the one thing she loves to do above all else.
“That’s one of my favorite things to do,” the former Clemson Rally Cat said Saturday afternoon. “When I get bored, I go on the internet and watch other routines, routines from other colleges, television shows and other dance teams. It is one way I try to make myself better.”
It was on this night eight years ago that a 14-year-old Sarvis came across a performance by the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Though she had seen the Cowboy Cheerleaders on television countless times, she had never seen them perform a full routine. She was amazed at what she saw.
“I love their showmanship,” she said. “They have so much power and energy. They are so entertaining to watch. As I was watching them, I thought to myself, ‘That’s what I want to look like.’
“You can’t help but love watching them. You can tell they love what they are doing. They are entertainers.”
It was at this point, Sarvis knew what she wanted to do. She did not want to be just a professional cheerleader — she wanted to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. On May 19, she came one step closer to fulfilling her dream when she was named one of 45 girls to make the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Training Camp Squad.
Former Clemson Rally Cat Collin Sarvis, sitting sixth from the left, with the rest of the 44 girls that earned a spot on the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Training Camp Squad. Sarvis was one of 24 rookies to make the squad. Photo courtesy Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
“I have loved them ever since that night in high school,” she said. “Once the (CMT) television show started, I always watched it. From watching the show, that’s when I thought to myself, ‘I can do this. That’s what I want to do.’”
And she is doing it. Sarvis is on the fast track to fulfilling her childhood dream. Just a few weeks after wrapping up her career as a Rally Cat for Clemson University at the National Cheerleading and Dance Competition in Orlando, FL, she boarded a plan to Dallas, TX where she, along with around 400 other girls, dared to dream.
“I told my family and my closest friends that this is what I wanted to do,” Sarvis said. “My mom told me, ‘Once you have a college degree, you can do whatever you want. If you want to try out for an NFL team, you can do that, but you have to have that degree first.’
“From that point on, I always said once I graduate from college this was what I was going to do. When I started at Clemson and became a Rally Cat, I still said it. I wanted to be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader.
“Before this year started, my mom looked at me and said, ‘This isn’t just saying it anymore, now it’s a reality. Do you really want this?’ After that conversation, I decided I was going to do it.”
Sarvis’ plans to become a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader went into full-action mode after talking to her mother, Charlotte. Though she was finishing up her nursing degree and her obligations as a member of the Rally Cats, she started a new workout schedule, changed her diet and began getting
ready for auditions.
She posted pictures of Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders by her computer and in her room to remind herself of what she was striving for. Every day she checked the auditions page of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders website, and when the audition application, times and dates were posted, she immediately submitted her application and started a countdown in her daily planner.
“I really did not tell anyone what I was doing,” Sarvis said. “My immediate family knew, the Rally Cats knew and a few of my best friends from high school. But besides that, I did not tell anyone. I got on a flight and I went down there by myself.
“I was determined I was going to do it.”
And so far, she has.
After surviving the preliminary and semifinal rounds in early May, Sarvis flew back to Dallas 11 days later for a formal interview, a test on the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and then one final performance for the judges. On May 19 — two weeks after tryouts began — Sarvis was named one of 45 girls to make the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Training Camp Squad. Her journey to become a full-time member of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders will continue over the next eight weeks as she participates in a grueling camp that will test her physically, mentally and as a dancer.
She will be doing all of this while studying for the NCLEX — her nursing license test — and moving to the Dallas/Fort Worth area at the same time.
“They are going to cut nine or ten more of us between now and the day of the team photo shoot,” Sarvis said. “That can happen at any time. I’m going to go down there and give this everything I have and do the best I can. That’s all I can do. This is what I have wanted to do for a very long time, so I’m going to give it all I got.”
Sarvis’ journey will be captured by television cameras as she, along with 21 veterans and 23 other rookies, will have CMT chronicle their stories on Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team 7, which will air in September.
“There have been moments, but I don’t know if it has totally sunk in yet that this is happening,” she said. “I go through so many stages of being excited, and then being stressed and overwhelmed. I realize this is the biggest thing I have ever done, but I’m really excited about what I’m doing.
“I have always dreamed about being a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader, and now I have an opportunity to achieve that. It has been really crazy these last couple of weeks, but it has been a good crazy. I’m so blessed to be in this situation.”
