2009 Clippers Fan Patrol Auditions
2009 Clippers Fan Patrol Auditions
Auditions for the Los Angeles Clippers stunt team took place on Saturday afternoon. Only a few NBA teams have a stunt team, and those that don’t are missing out. The Fan Patrol adds a lot to game day entertainment. No disrespect to the Clippers, but they aren’t the winningest team in the NBA. The Fan Patrol provides much-needed spirit and enthusiasm to each home game.
[I took lots of photos, which you can find right here.]
Fan Patrol tryouts were at a different venue this year. Last year, it was a dance studio. This year it was at Fit Kids Gym in Torrance. Fit Kids gym has lots of bright colors and music, and the floor is bouncy. Basically, my kind of place.
A talented group of athletes turned up to take a shot at making the Kia Fan Patrol for the 2009-2010 season. With nearly half of last year’s team retired, the newbies had a pretty good shot at it. As usual, the girls were tiny and fearless, and the boys were throwing them around like tennis balls or whatever. The thing that strikes me is how fearless and trusting you have to be to get involved in this kind of activity. The veterans have an advantage in that they’ve worked together before. The new people have a bigger challenge. Basically, they have to show up at auditions and team up with people they’ve known for only 15 minutes. The girls have to trust a total stranger to toss them around and – most importantly – to catch them. The boys have to hope the girls are in shape, and have some technique. Yeah, the girl is a total stranger, but you don’t want to drop her on the ground and have that on your conscience!
Fan Patrol auditions consist of three segments: tumbling, stunting, and “Hot Time-out” (aka crowd appeal). The auditioners were divided into groups of four. Each group did all 3 segments, then the next group did all three, and so on. When it came to the girls, once your group had it’s turn, you were pretty much done for the day. The guys all had to do the stunting section a few times, so it got a little tricky keeping everyone’s numbers in order. (Tricky for me anyway. The judges seemed to have it all under control.)
Girls usually outnumber the guys at these auditions, so each guy had to work with a few different girls. (They had the option to choose which time they wanted to be judged on.) These girls are pretty small, but the smallest are still around a hundred pounds. That’s a lot to lift over and over again. These guys have to have serious upper body strength.
I found myself wondering if they lift regular weights at the gym, or if stunting involves special muscle groups that can only be strengthened by lifting actual human beings. (15 reps with Tami as the barbell, then 15 with Cortlin, and so on.)
The tumbling section is self-explanatory. Each person had the option to demonstrate tumbling in place (back flips, etc.) and doing a tumbling pass (a series of flips going across the room.) I’d tell you more, but I don’t know much about the technical aspects of gymnastics. I know what a roundoff is, and a standing back tuck, but that’s about it. There was a lot of other stuff going on that wasn’t either of those two things. These guys could really catch some air! Not everyone had to tumble though, and some chose not to.
Stunting is the basically partner stunts where the the guy balances the girl in the air on one hand or two, and the girl does a few different positions, ie liberty, kewpie, heel stretch, bow-and-arrow, etc. There’s a lot more to it than this, but you get the gist. There’s this one move that continues to defy understanding (and the laws of gravity). I don’t know what you call it, but the guy throws the girl up in the air and she does some kind of back flip – seven feet in the AIR, mind you – and lands with her feet balanced on his hands.
Then there’s this other one where … I can’t even explain it. It’s some crazy spinning thing. I wish I had video so I could watch it in slo-mo and understand the mechanics of it all.
A hot time out is code for clubbing with the Fan Patrol.
Ok, I’m kidding. A hot time-out is what happens during a game when there’s a time out and you have to do something to keep the crowd engaged (so they aren’t sitting around scratching themselves and talking about the weather.) The music gets loud and the Fan Patrolers run out on the court and get the crowd hyped up. There’s some stunting, some jumping around and flipping, a basket toss here and there, a few “Let’s GO!” signs, some yelling, tossing of t-shirts, and overall merriment. I’d describe it as “spontaneous goofing off, underlaid with a significant amount of athletic technique.”
It’s kind of interesting to watch this go on in an audition setting. There’s no crowd to cheer along, just the judges. And although the judges will smile encouragingly, they aren’t going to paint their faces red, white, and blue and yell “Let’s go Clips” at the top of their lungs. (I wanted to, but thought I’d better not.)
Nevermind though. The auditioners cheered for each other. LOUDLY.
The audition itself went very quickly. Everyone had a turn, and then the judges adjourned to choose the finalists.
Meanwhile, you’d think everyone would kind of chill for a minute. But no. As soon as the audition is over, they’re back at it: flipping and stunting and whatnot. I heard a lot of “Hey, let’s try this!” Boing, boing, boing.
Do you remember those kids on the playground? The ones who were always climbing the jungle gym and hanging upside down on the monkey bars? Those kids eventually become these kids.
It took the judges a while to narrow down the field. They’re looking for 10 guys and 10 girls, but I think that number is flexible. When they finished deliberating, they announced the names of those who would continue on to the interview phase of the audition. Interviews were on Monday, so now the only thing to do is wait to find out who made the team. Have no doubt. When I know, you’ll know!
