[Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team on CMT.com]

The Florida Panthers’ home opener was last weekend. The Ice Dancers, now called the Redline Lady Panthers, made a heck of an entrance, rappelling down from the rafters at BankAtlantic Center. Click here and fast-forward to 4:25 check it out.

This week’s gallery includes dancers from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders, Washington Redskins, Atlanta Falcons, and the New England Patriots (who celebrated Halloween two weeks early this year!) Click here to view the photos.

The Los Angeles Matadors Knockouts dance team is back for a second year in the ring! Auditions took place over the weekend and 9 dancers were selected! Congratulations to the Knockouts and their Director Whitney!

Returners:
Bailey (Also danced for Chivas USA)
Brandy (Also danced for AVP and the Columbus Destroyers)
Brittany
Marissa
Natalie (Remember her? She was on “Survivor: Redemption Island”)

Newbies:
Amanda
Dani
Maryedith
Nicole (Also danced for the Lakers and Chivas USA)

By Megan Hart
The Muskegon Chronicle
10/17/2011

The start of a Hart High School graduate’s quest to become one of “America’s sweethearts” will air Thursday night.

Marie DeRuiter will appear in the sixth season of Country Music Television’s reality show “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team.” She was one of 27 young women to make the cheerleader training camp for the first time. The show will premier on CMT at 10 p.m. Thursday.

“It’s a little bit nerve-wracking at first to have cameras around you all the time,” she said. “The TV crew’s there so much they become your friends.”

DeRuiter said she started dancing when she was four, and moved to Los Angeles to study dance after graduating from Hart High School in 2005.

She returned to West Michigan a year later to study at Grand Valley State University, with the encouragement of her parents, Richard and Laura DeRuiter of Hart, she said. She graduated in 2010 with a degree in marketing and sales.

“I did ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary, hip hop,” she said.

After graduation, she successfully tried out for the Grand Rapids Rampage and West Michigan Thunderhawks indoor football teams’ cheer squads.

“I didn’t even hold a pompom until I tried out for the Rampage,” she said. “They’re called cheerleaders, but they’re more of a dance team.”

In May, she decided to kick it to the next level by flying to Dallas to try out for the Cowboys’ cheer team.

“When you think of professional cheerleaders you think of the Cowboys,” she said. “I wanted to be part of the best team in America.”

The Cowboys’ cheerleaders’ work with the USO and the Salvation Army also appealed to her, she said.

About 500 women participated in the first weekend of auditions, DeRuiter said. The first task was to freestyle dance, she said, and 122 women were chosen to return for the next round of auditions, according to CMT.

The dancers learned a routine and participated in a kickline for the second round of auditions, which narrowed the field to 69 candidates. They then had to compete with 18 returning cheerleaders for 45 spots in the cheerleader training camp, DeRuiter said, in a third weekend which included an interview segment.

“They want you to be intelligent as well as good dancers,” she said.

They also had to choreograph their own dance routines, complete with costumes and music. DeRuiter said her routine theme was “being a strong woman,” and included Beyonce Knowles “Run the World” and a jazz song.

“The song says that you can clean the house and still be glamorous and be independent,” she said.

DeRuiter made the cut for the 12-week training camp. Most days, the dancers were practicing from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., she said.

“They cut girls through the whole entire process, so any day could be your last day in camp,” she said. “I met so many great girls. You’re all going through this stressful process together so you end up really connecting.”

She made it almost to the end, she said, but a hamstring injury sidelined her on the last night of the camp. She was practicing a kickline with ankle weights so she could kick higher when it was time to perform – not a good idea for healthy hamstrings, she said.

DeRuiter went to physical therapy and tried acupuncture and electric stimulation treatments while still in training camp, but it wasn’t enough.

“I was trying to get it back during training camp, but that just wasn’t realistic,” she said.

For now, she’s back in West Michigan, coaching the dance team at Aquinas College. She said she’s considering pursuing a master’s degree in communications, and taking another shot at being a Cowboy dancer.

“I’m hoping to heal up and try again next May,” she said. “Performing, for me, is what really makes me happy, being able to make people smile.”

Bengals.com has all the photos from the Ben-Gals 2011-12 Calendar. I’m not certain about this, but it looks like it was shot in and around Paul Brown Stadium. Click here to buy a copy of the calendar for yourself!

Sidebar: I’m still not in love with Vick because of the whole dog fighting thing, but at least he apologized. That’s more than some other professional athletes I could name.~ sasha

By Chris Chase
Yahoo Sports
10/15/2011

Whether out of frustration or boredom or a desire to audition to replace rookie kicker Alex Henery(notes), Michael Vick(notes) kicked a ball on the sideline after a long run during Sunday’s Philadelphia Eagles game that flew directly at the head of a Washington Redskins cheerleader.

Vick was pushed to the sideline after a long run and mindlessly swung his leg at a ball that was set up on a tee at the kicker’s net. Keep an eye on the left side of the screen as Vick run out of bounds.

[click here to watch the video]

Vick immediately apologized, an act of contrition that sounds like it should be a no-brainer but frequently isn’t in a league where players knock over sideline personnel and act like nothing happened. Throw in the fact that Vick has never been the best at admitting fault, and his apology was downright refreshing.

His decision to kick the ball in the first place, however, was less so. What was the best possible outcome there? Either it was going to hit someone on the sideline, sail into the stands or he was going to miss it like Charlie Brown playing with Lucy. It made as much sense as one of those patented, inexplicable Andy Reid timeouts. Surely the allure of kicking a ball on a tee couldn’t have been that enticing.

Vick was asked about the kick after the game and reiterated his regret.

“I apologize to the cheerleaders,” Vick said. “That was a very bad gesture and can’t let my emotions get the best of me, so sorry to the Redskins cheerleaders. I didn’t mean to offend anybody.”

By MICHELLE BRUNETTI POST, Staff Writer
Press of Atlantic City
Sun Oct 16, 2011

When Melissa J. Collesano, of Galloway Township, was a professional dancer and cheerleader for sports teams such as the New Jersey Nets, fans were often shocked to learn about her day job.

“Here I am in my glitter and pompoms,” Collesano said of times when she talked to fans and signed autographs. “They couldn’t believe I was actually a librarian.”

So when she started a business to promote reading, and the children’s books she’s written, she wanted to make it fun and show her “sassy side.” And the Book Babe website and blog were born, she said.

Collesano, 39, has written, illustrated, and self-published two books: “Pheobe McKeeby’s Garden Apartment,” about generosity, and “Pheobe McKeeby in ‘I Promise I’ll Take Care of the Dog,'” about responsibility. The librarian at Fernwood Avenue Middle School in Egg Harbor Township since 2005 also plans a series of character trait books.

Collesano began cheering in second grade and was the first cheerleader inducted into her hometown’s athletic hall of fame in Elmwood Park, Bergen County, she said. Her husband, Pete, is a gym teacher at Eagle Academy in Egg Harbor Township. They met when he was the football coach and she was the cheerleading coach at a high school in North Jersey. They have a 1-year-old son.

She will be featured in Authors’ Alley during the 2011 New Jersey Education Association Convention, Nov. 10 to 11 at the Atlantic City Convention Center.

Walking for the cure

Southern Regional High School special education/English teacher Dawn Bischoff, of the Manahawkin section of Stafford Township, is walking 60 miles this weekend in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure, which started Saturday. She and two other women on her Soul Sistas team will join thousands of women walking through Philadelphia, sleeping along the route. Bischoff’s team has already raised more than $7,726 for Komen’s programs to help women with breast cancer.

Everyone Has a Story appears Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays.

Contact Michelle Brunetti Post:

609-272-7219, Michelle.Post@pressofac.com

‘The Book Babe’

For information on Melissa J. Collesano’s books and her blog, visit www.bookbabe.net

By Sherri Thompson
Seahawks.com
Oct 15, 2011

Sea Gals director Sherri Thompson provides and overview into the start of the Sea Gals season.

The Sea Gals season begins shortly after auditions in May. We get right down to business with orientation where I outline the expectations and high standards the team will have to meet. Contrary to the quote you may have hear “progress not perfection” I expect “perfection” and that is what we work on all summer long! We practice two nights each week for about four hours.

The team is quickly fitted for their new uniforms and other costumes for the calendar shoot. The calendar shoot is a two day intense process followed by hours of photo selection, layout, and finally the unveiling in August.

The Sea Gals have had a very busy schedule which included Junior Sea Gals, additional Show Group practices and about 100 community appearances to date this season. It is a huge commitment to be a Sea Gal and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. In addition to dance the Sea Gals must work on physical appearance, hair and make-up technique, speaking, and of course football knowledge.

The past few weeks have been especially crazy. We just finished the Breast Cancer Awareness Halftime. This means many extra hours of practice for everyone! We have had several late night rehearsals ending around 11:00PM. We are currently working toward the October 30th game where the Sea Gals will do another great halftime performance for Halloween! So don’t leave your seats for the halftime as it will be Frightfully Fun!

[Click here to watch the special “pink” halftime show]

[Click here for photos]