Last Saturday was the opening and semi-final rounds of the current year auditions to become “your” Miami Dolphin Cheerleader. Always a fun day in Dolphinland as hundreds of potential candidates invade Sun Life Stadium following their dream. Every year the MDC loses some very impressive talent to retirement etc, but I have to admit that the new candidates knocking on the doors are stunning. I did hear the word “wow” a few times during introductions.
The skillful candidates who made it through to Finals number 56, they will complete with 25 returning veterans for the approximate 44 member cheer squad. Sharpen your dancing shoes young ladies as the pyramid starts to narrow.
Finals are this Saturday, May 10 and are open to the public. If you’re in South Florida come out and see the showcase that these talented and beautiful young ladies present. Fan voting is available online: (voting link).
Lily demonstrating choreography for tryout candidates
Candidate Miwa
Candidate Kelsey
Candidate Amy
Candidate Kasey (last cheered on MDC in 2012)
Fan favorite alum Amy Madill now doing the judging
Candidate awaiting start of registration
MDC Showtime demonstration
[Dolphins Cheerleaders Audition Gallery]
Comprenez-vous? No, I don’t understand how the Lightning’s great 101 points season could end up in a playoff sweep loss to the Les Habitants! It’s all french to me. BUT, wait until next year, the foundation is set.
The Lightning Girls are a very cohesive group of talented young ladies who obviously enjoy their entertaining gig and the sorority friendships they have established. Hope to see most of them back next season. I added some season end photos to the back of my album. Enjoy.
Crystal, Co-captain
Alexis
Erica
Alexis, Kori & Megan
Erica & Isabella
Alyssa, Allison & Heather
Stephanie, Allison, Kelsey, Heather & Crystal
Heather, Marissa (Co-captain) & Cher
Courtney, Kelsey & Stephanie
It’s all in the family for these attractive Tampa cheerleaders. Karen Bittinger of the Buccaneers and her younger sister Alyssa, a first year Hockey Lightning Girl, are both energizing the Tampa Bay fans into rooting for their respective teams.
Karen has been dancing on the Buc’s sideline for the last 3 years and prior to that was skating and performing as a Lightning Girl over 4 seasons and also did a stint as a member of the Rays cheer squad at Tropicana Field. A line co-captain the last two years, Karen narrated the Buccaneer’s nutritional and fitness education presentations on the team’s web site. Karen is a certified fitness professional who teaches group BodyAttack, a high intensity cross fit cardio exercise program. She proudly admits to being a passionate gym rat so look her up if you’re ready to tackle your overdue new year resolution to get into shape.
Sweet baby sister Alyssa also exhibits great athleticism as she won Summit, held at Disney World, the largest national (maybe world?) cheerleading competition. Alyssa maintains a very busy schedule between cheering, coaching, work and college classes. Along with Karen, Alyssa enjoys training and mentoring youth for the nationally acclaimed Florida Top Dog All Stars (cheer performers). Alyssa is getting to experience the added excitement of NHL Playoffs this year and Karen will be cheering on the cheerleaders.
These two women are intense and competitive so of course I had to ask some tough questions–who’s abs are tighter, who’s prettier? They both got one vote each. Haha. Two classy, talented young ladies–they represent Tampa Bay well. Their photogenic features make my job easy.
Karen & Alyssa representing their teams at Tampa’s Gasparilla Parade
Karen & Alyssa coaching at cheerleader tournament
Karen at last year’s draft day party
Thank goodness Karen doesn’t know when to come out of the rain
Karen during 2013 season
Alyssa at opening game of playoffs
Alyssa pregame on the Thunder Plaza
Alyssa with teammate Isabella
[Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders]
Lightning Girls Crystal, Kelsey, Kori, Marissa, Heather are going to the Playoffs tonight.
This month is our Tenth Anniversary and to celebrate we’re posting some of our all-time favorite photos.
Tampa Bay Storm Dancer Tiffany
My first game for Ultimate Cheerleaders was in 2011 covering the Tampa Bay Storm Dancers. As a amateur I was a complete fish out of water. Couldn’t adjust for the ambient lightning (plus strobes, spotlights and dodging motorcycles), used incorrect shutter speed, wrong aperture—-my portfolio was a mess. Then I hit on this picture of Tiffany. What’s that saying?—even a dead mouse will snap a decent photo once in a while. Beautiful blue eyes Tiffany was captain that year after a very successful SunDoll career at USF. Thanks for the rescue Tiffany.
Wow, was I asleep at the switch. Last week ex Buc’s cheerleader Brooke Newton was 10 miles up the road filming mermaid scenes as the lead actress in her latest project: Winding Waters, a short film. I go all over Florida photographing professional cheerleaders and I missed Ms. Brooke in my own backyard. Here’s a couple photos
of Brooke.
Brooke and her best cheer buddy Stacy (Westbrook) Whitehead, circa 2005
Stacy and Brooke on Winding Waters set.
Brooke appearing at Daytime Emmy Awards
[Stacey’s Pink Pineapple Fitness on Facebook]
The results are in and DolFans voted popular Brianne the winner in the latest cheerleader showdown poll on Dolphins.com
This will be Brianne’s 5th year on the squad. Here are some photos of Brianne last season.
[Brianne at DolphinsCheerleaders.com]
This month is our Tenth Anniversary and to celebrate we’re posting some of our all-time favorite photos.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleader Emily
This photo is from the 2012 Eagles game where the Buccaneers celebrated the 10th anniversary of their Super Bowl Victory. Many alumni players and cheerleaders were in attendance. Usually, I like to zoom in for a closeup of the face and Emily helped me get the boot included also. Fun day except for the 2 point loss. Oh well.
The Tampa Bay Rays treated their sold out fans to an early and decisive knockout of the Blue Jays on opening day. The Rays have retooled their offense and with their strong returning pitching are hoping to capture the very elusive Eastern Division crown this season. We will see if the Sox, Yanks, Birds, Jays will roll over.
The “Ray Team” was originated in 2006 as an interactive fun squad. They redefined themselves this year by going co-ed. Along with Raymond, they do a good job to entertain and energize the fan base.The Rays are one of a very few select MLB organizations to employ a “cheer group”.
Opening day is always electric, Tropicana Field is especially a great place to bring children. Enjoy the photos:
The Bucs opened Raymond James Stadium the other night to their season ticket holders to introduce and showcase the new Nike uniforms. Glitz and strobe lights were the props of the night as a playful session of questions were presented to the returning and newly signed players. The Unis are nice but in my (ever consistent) opinion, the TBBC’s opening performance stole the thunder.
Difficult lightning conditions for photographing but I did manage to click off a few shots. Enjoy.
Tricia, Kari & Megan
Crystale
Tricia
Megan
Kari
New Uniform
Doug Martin
