Last season, the NBA ran a contest to identify the best dance team in professional basketball and the Sacramento Kings Dancers represented the West in the finals. While they didn’t make it all the way, they were crowned “Best in the West”. So when this year’s auditions were announced, I contacted the organization and I was fortunate to be granted complete access to cover the proceedings.
The 2011 Sacramento Kings Dancers auditions were held on Friday, September 9th at the Thunder Valley Casino and Resort, a beautiful facility on the outskirts of Sacramento. I arrived a little before 4:00 pm and there was a crowd of girls waiting to register. As I entered Pano Hall, my first impression was that the Kings were going all out to stage their auditions. Unlike other events that I have attended, the Kings opened their preliminary auditions to the public. The choice of the venue and the entertainment system was impressive.
I knew I was going to get some great shots and I was ready to go.
The Sacramento Kings are holding a fan vote for your favorite Kings Dancer candidates. There are 21 gorgeous girls to choose from and I can tell you that all of remaining candidates are spectacular. Vote for your favorite Kings Dancer here.
And stay tuned for my article on the 2011 Sacramento Kings Dancer Open Call auditions.
Fatigue, thy name is…mine. Just 24 four hours earlier, I was in Sacramento, covering the 2011 Sacramento Kings Dancers open call auditions (more about that later this week). Sunday and 504 miles later, I was in San Diego to attend the Chargers home opener against the Minnesota Vikings. Now being an old geezer of 48 years, I seriously considered skipping the Chargers game to rest and start working on my photos from Sacramento. I am no longer a 20 year old road warrior, who can do over-nighters and burn it at both ends. No. I am getting long in the tooth and need my rest, but I dragged my tired ass to Qualcomm Stadium to support the Chargers and, more importantly, the Charger Girls.
On this Sunday, it was the 10th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11 and the NFL had planned numerous observances at all their venues. It was important for me to be here, if only to pay my respects to the fallen and to make a symbolic statement that acts of terror cannot defeat us by making us cower in our homes. Life goes on and it is to be enjoyed to the fullest. And I enjoy watching football and I really enjoy photographing the Charger Girls. So as tired as I was from driving over 1000 miles in four days, I wanted to be here for the Chargers home opener.
NFL glamor boy Adrian Peterson along with the rest of the Minnesota Vikings made the trek to sunny San Diego to try to steal a win from the Chargers. In a nightmarish reminder of last season’s special teams blunders, the San Diego Chargers let Viking Percy Harvin take the opening kick off 103 yards for a touchdown. But as the game progressed, the Chargers asserted their dominance, riding upon the three touchdown effort of fullback Mike Tolbert. In the end, the Chargers limited Viking QB Donovan McNabb to a paltry 39 passing yards en route to a 24 – 17 win.
Now the game was not the only highlight. The Charger Girls wore special uniforms in homage of 10th anniversary of the 9/11/01 tragedy. They were nice, dignified and not too overtly sexy for NFL cheerleader uniforms and they featured a ribbon in a very apropos place…over their hearts.
Okay, I am sure most of you want to see what the other Charger Girls look like in these special uniforms. So let’s begin with the Charger Girl Line Captains: Tiffany, Katie, Natalie and Lauren O.
This week’s Charger Girl of the Day has always given me great shots and I appreciate her enthusiasm and spirit. She is a former Laker Girl and current Line Captain, introducing Katie.
Last week I was in San Francisco to see the 49ers battle the Houston Texans. This week, I was in San Diego to watch the Chargers play the 49ers in the last preseason game for both teams. The fourth week is clearly the worst of week of preseason football. You rarely get to see the star players who are held out of the game for fear of being injured. So the game is mostly relegated to the second and third string players, many of whom will not be on the team in 48 hours when the last cuts are announced. Even the fans know the fourth week of preseason sucks judging by the thousands and thousands of empty seats.
In a lackluster game, the 49ers second and third team beat the Chargers second and third team, 20 – 17.
The only redeeming quality of preseason football is the cheerleaders. There they are, giving their all to entertain the crowd in what is typically a boring game. So if the game was less than interesting, the Chargers Girls were absolutely captivating.
So what did we learn? Alex Smith is not the answer to the question, who is the 49ers franchise quarterback. Charger running back Ryan Mathews can shred a second team defense. The new kick off rule sucks, unless you like touch backs. And finally, if you put a lousy product on the field, the ticket paying public will stay at home…unless you force them to purchase preseason games, at full price, as a part of their season ticket plan.
Okay, enough ranting. Let’s begin this week’s coverage of the ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS Charger Girls with the Line Captains…Tiffany, Katie, Natalie and Lauren O.
I dated a red head in college. She was half Italian and half Irish and all fire. So you can say, like most men, I like red heads…who doesn’t. There is just something alluring about a red head, a certain je ne sais quoi quality…eh, I don’t know what. Anyway, this week’s Charger Girl of the Day is a fiery red head from Colorado, introducing…Anjelica.
Anjelica kind of reminds me of that red headed vampire Jessica in HBO’s True Blood…kind of …except she’s got good teeth.
<<Edit>> Okay, I have re-read the previous sentence (I wrote this article late last night and I was dead tired). I did not mean to suggest that Anjelica reminds me of a vampire. No. I meant to say that she reminds me of the actress who plays the sexy vampire character Jessica on True Blood. But…the thought of a sexy vampire cheerleader…now that would be television gold! <<End Edit>>
I like to travel up to the Bay area. San Francisco has a unique vibe and its a cool place to visit with lots of things to see and do. So when I get a chance to visit SF and catch a Niners game, its all good.
Its a new season and I was looking forward to checking out the 49ers Gold Rush. I read that they were getting new uniforms and I wanted to see the new girls on the squad. And added plus was that the Niners were playing the Houston Texans and I wanted to see Texans RB Arian Foster in person…one of my keepers in my fantasy football league.
So how did my weekend turn out? Arian Foster pulled his hamstring, but I got some great shots of the 49ers Gold Rush. See for yourself.
Before I begin our regular coverage of the 49ers Gold Rush, I would like to recognize the Gold Rush Cheerleader of the Day. For those of you who are familiar with my Charger Girl game day reports, you know I like to feature the cheerleader that has given me the best photographs of the day. And in this report, I will continue this trend by recognizing an absolutely gorgeous 49er Gold Rush, who I think is named Taylor. You will have to forgive me because as most knowledgeable cheerleader fans know, a girl’s profile photo taken the day of the auditions looks nothing like the cheerleader after their make over. So, if I have incorrectly named our Gold Rush Cheerleader of the Day, my apologies.
So without further ado, our Gold Rush Cheerleader of the Day.
She kind of reminds me of an uber sexy Anna Paquin, Sookie Stackhouse of HBO’s True Blood fame.
Charger Girl bios and videos have been updated on the Chargers main website.
Read about your favorite Charger Girls here.
With the settlement of the NFL labor issue, football is back! Preseason football, that is. Every year I take the opportunity to rant about how terrible preseason football is and how that as a season ticket holder, we are about the only people in the stadium to pay full price to watch some crappy ass football. With the loss of OTAs and mini camps due to the lockout, the caliber of preseason football is worse than ever. Now my dear friend, our former Arizona Correspondent Max…I shall call him Mad Max because he made the drive out to the game from Phoenix and then drove home the same day, thought that this game was a good one because it came down to the last minute. And in that sense it was exciting, but preseason football played by third and fourth stringers is not good football. But as die hard football fans, we are suckers and we will pay top dollar for crappy ass football because we can’t live without the NFL.
The only redeeming aspect of preseason football is the cheerleaders and to tell you the truth, I was excited to see the new squad of Charger Girls. So if the football was crappy, the Charger Girls were amazing.
Oh and if anyone is interested, the Seahawks third stringers defeated the Chargers third stringers, 24 – 17.
As long as I have been covering the Charger Girls for this blog, I have started off my articles by recognizing the Line Captains. So without further ado, introducing Katie, Tiffany, Natalie and Lauren O.
You’d think that with the name of the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders that their squad would be filled with tall, gorgeous Nordic types. You know, blonde and beautiful. I am sure that the MVC have their fair share of drop dead gorgeous blondes, but for this convention they brought a whole squad of drop dead gorgeous brunettes. Their squad definitely demands your attention and one (of the many MVC) that caught my eye was 5th year Vikings Cheerleader Bailey, a 2011 P-R-O Convention All Star.
The Inland Empire 66ers, a minor league affiliate of the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles, have a dance team. But they do more than just dance. Minor league baseball is a family friendly environment and there are a lot of promotions and special events to get the crowd out to the ball park. And the Inland Empire 66ers Dance Team is front and center in creating a fun filled night of entertainment.
I’ve only been to two P-R-O Conventions, but one thing is quite obvious to me…and that is that the squads have carved out their territory on the dance floor because the Texans, Colts and Washington Redskins Cheerleaders were in the front, in the same spot as last year. That’s cool…makes it easy for me to shoot them. And I did take quite a lot of photos of these squads. And one cheerleader that I took a fair amount of photographs of, was Washington Redskins Cheerleader Toccara. I photographed her last year and one thing I remembered was that she was keenly aware when the camera was on her and delivered compelling looks. You know, that’s one of the qualities of the best cheerleaders…when the camera is on them, they turn it on. Even in a dance convention, while learning a routine, Toccara plays to the camera. If you are a cheerleader, always play to the camera. So for that reason, Toccara is a 2011 P-R-O Convention All Star.
