From WDSU.com
Dancers Taking Super Bowl Field After First Quarter
The Saintsations dance team is in South Florida and ready to cheer the team.
It’s a first for NFL’s New Orleans dance team, but it will be a bittersweet game for Amanda Scott.
The 23-year-old Saintsation is a Chalmette resident who lost everything during Hurricane Katrina. She said the game is more than just a Super Bowl for New Orleans.
“It’s a rock for the city, a foundation, something that unites everybody after everything we’ve been through,” she said.
Scott said the recovery from Katrina brought her to tears at her very first game as a Saintsation. It was the day that players and fans returned to the Superdome after the storm.
“Green Day performed with U2 to ‘The Saints Are Coming.’ Every time we play that song — actually, we’re dancing to it in the Super Bowl — I still get the chills from watching them perform,” Scott said.
Scott’s four years on the dance team have come full circle — from her first game and the “domecoming” to her last game this Sunday in the Super Bowl.
“I think it’s going to be final closure for me, just because it has been such a toss up,” Scott said. “I know this is my final game. Of course I’m tearing up right now, but I know that it’s going to be the end. So it’s just really hard, but I’m at the big game, so that’s all that matters.”
The Saintsations said it’s also the first year that an NFL dance team has been allowed to perform on the field in the Super Bowl. They’ll perform after first quarter and the Colts Cheerleaders will take the field after third quarter.
By Thad Angelloz
The Daily Comet
Being a New Orleans Saintsation has its share of benefits.
Just ask Terrebonne Parish resident Erin Buxton.
Buxton, who has traveled around the globe as a Saints cheerleader, finds herself smack dab in the middle of the Super Bowl where she and her teammates will get the chance to dance during the pregame festivities.
Buxton says she’s excited about the experience and her team’s manager, Leslie Fitzmorris, said the group is better because of her.
“The Saintsations are influential role models to the youth,” Fitzmorris said. “Erin is a true representative of the youth and talent in the New Orleans area. We are proud to have her as a member of the 2009-2010 team.”
Fitzmorris said she excelled in a competition last April to win a coveted position on the prestigious team.
During Super Bowl week the team has made appearances on Fox and Friends, the CBS Early Show and Bill O’ Reilly, to name a few.
The current Saintsation has been a dedicated employee at JL Salon in downtown Houma for three years.
James LeCompte, owner of JL Salon, said fellow staff and clients are happy for Buxton.
“People made it a point to stop by and tell her congratulations when they found out she was going down there,” he said. “It makes all of us feel a bigger part of it (game) knowing she’s going to be there cheering the guys on.”
By Robin Miller
The Advocate
They’ll never pass this way again.
Oh, there will be other football seasons. There may even be another NFC championship.
But none of it will happen as it did this year, when the Saintsations fielded a “dream team.”
That’s what former LSU Golden Girl Lesslee Fitzmorris, the Saintsations’ manager, calls this year’s Saints’ cheerleading squad.
“We all knew that this season was going to be special,” Fitzmorris, of Covington, said. “We knew it last summer, when we had our retreat in Destin, Fla. Never have I had a group like this.”
First, squad members posed no intrasquad competition, meaning no one tried to outdo anyone else. Criticism was replaced by support.
Those attitudes forged an instant bond among the 37 — 34 Saintsations plus choreographers, Blair Buras and Eileen Arnold, and Mama, as Fitzmorris calls herself. The closeness had to be a good omen, right?
“I remember coming back from the retreat and telling coach Payton, ‘I have the Dream Team this year,’” Fitzmorris said.
Of course, as head coach of the New Orleans Saints, Sean Payton was working on his own dream team, one that’s played its way to the Super Bowl for the first time in the team’s 43-year history, a journey that somehow seemed predestined.
“We just knew,” said Brittany Hamilton, a political science major at LSU. Her sister Chrissy Hamilton also is a Saintsation and is a student in the Xavier University College of Pharmacy.
But Brittany Hamilton also knows that this group will never pass this way again. Friendships are lifelong, but Dream Teams are rare. Membership will change next year. Some members will leave; others may not make the team. And even if the Saints were to make a repeat Super Bowl appearance in 2011, it wouldn’t be the same. You have to have been there. But that’s past tense. The 2009 Saintsations are there now.
On Jan. 28, squad members, dressed in identical two-piece practice uniforms of black and gold, were running through their final home rehearsal before leaving for Miami.
“They have all kinds of uniforms,” Fitzmorris said. “They’re girls, so, of course they love clothes.”
But the most coveted perks are the game day parking passes.
“They say the pass, alone, is worth being a Saintsation,” Fitzmorris said.
The Maryland Greenhawks have posted bios and photos of their dance team. You can check them out here.
Last batch of photos from Dan (Thanks!) this time from the Pro Bowl itself
On Thursday, December 17 the Swarm Performance Team unveiled our first calendar! We shot the calendar at David Bank’s photography less than two weeks ago, and with the help of David Bank and the Swarm, the calendar is complete. To celebrate, we had an unveiling party at Alary’s Bar in Saint Paul. All ten ladies were in attendance to sign the calendars, take pictures with fans and generate excitement for the upcoming season. We loved seeing all the fans that came out in the Swarm gear!
The cover models are six year veteran (and Swarm favorite) Carrie, rookie Brianna, and 3rd year vet Jes. Each SPT member is featured on a month with the remaining two months featuring a rookie and veteran picture. The calendar also includes two pages of bios and a team photo on the back cover.
Make sure to pick up your copy of the first ever Performance Team calendar! Calendars can be purchased at all home games, at SPT appearances, in the Hockey Lodge or on online at theswarmshop.com..
Laura
[Minnesota Swarm Performance Team]
We’re really indebted to Dan K. Here are a few more of his photos from pre-game festivities ath the Pro Bowl.
From CBS4.com
For the past several years, one of the cornerstone events for Super Bowl weekend is the Legends for Charity Dinner. Each year, it honors a sports broadcaster with the coveted Pat Summerall Award. While the broadcasters get the credit, it’s actually a cheerleader who helps keep the event running.
Cheryl Deleonardis is a former Dolphins Cheerleader who worked with the team in three Super Bowls when the franchise was on top of the football world in the 1970’s. “As a matter of fact, they haven’t won a Super Bowl since Don Shula and I stood on the sidelines,” Cheryl said. “So you need to get back out there. Put on the uniform. I don’t know about that, but I’ll stand with them.”
While Cheryl may not be cheering, she is still involved with the NFL. She created the Legends for Charity Dinner. In 2005, the award went to Pat Summerall, just six months after his life was saved from a liver transplant in Jacksonville.
The response to her award was overwhelming and spurred Cheryl on to continue honoring sports broadcasters with the award, which would be called the Pat Summerall Award. Each year, Cheryl works hand in hand with Pat to pick the honoree.
“I know more about the honoree then they know about themselves,” Cheryl said.
Past recipients of the award include: Greg Gumbel, Chris Berman, and Jim Nantz. “I have this saying in Augusta, a tradition unlike any other,” Nantz said. “She is an event organizer, charity planner, unlike any other. She really knows how to get things done.”
Cheryl draws inspiration for the contest from her father. “He had a dream for this (community) center. He worked tirelessly for six years while holding a full-time job to make this happen,” Cheryl revealed.
Her father passed away before Cheryl started the Legends for Charity events, but she says he would be proud. “I do stand back at end of event and go ‘wow,'” Cheryl said. “Look at this. It’s all going for such a great cause.”
The money raised from the event goes to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. At Cheryl’s home office, there are pictures and letters from the kids at St. Jude telling her thanks. “It’s very, very heartwarming to get something like this from these kids who don’t know me. Makes it all worthwhile,” Cheryl said.
Saturday I made the trip up to Boston’s TD Garden for a chance to photograph and meet The Sparks.
The Sparks are under the direction and choreographed by Jenny (who dances with the team as well!) Jenny is originally from Williamsport, PA. She got her BA in Psychology from Franklin & Marshall and earned a Masters in Health Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. Check out our list of Ivy Leaguers here.
Meghan has a degree in Accounting from UMass-Amherst and works as a financial analyst.
The ladies of The Sparks had an even busier day than usual. Normally the dancers perform 4 times: pre-game and at each quarter break.
Today they would be performing at half-time with the junior dance team The Sparklers, so they spent time in the tunnel rehearsing with the girls.
Nicole earned her Bachelors in Psychology from BU and a Masters in Social Work from BC. She works as a Clinical Social Worker.
And the fun’s not still not over. When the game’s over you can join the Sparks for the After Party at West Side Johnny’s just two blocks from the Garden.
