Game on! Sports Illustrated has posted their first cheerleader gallery of the regular season. This week’s collection includes the Jets Flight Crew, Charger Girls, and Cheerleaders from the Cardinals, Rams, Texans, Ravens, Chiefs, and Bucs. Click here to go there now!

Clippers.com
9/14/11

It was all smiles at the Clippers training facility in Playa Vista today as the Los Angeles Clippers Spirit Dance Team got together for their first official photo shoot of the year. The 16-member team is highlighted by nine new members that played a big part in providing a nice buzz throughout the training center as they marveled at their surroundings and anxiously awaited their turn in front of the camera.

“I think this is one of the highlights of the season,” said Ariana, one of the new girls on the team. “It’s all about getting glammed up with the girls, then getting pictures of your own and framing them and making little albums. I think it is one of the most fun days.”

That was definitely confirmed by day’s end, as the girls laughed and joked with each other the entire way through.

“The team has been amazing,” said Jessie, a first-year member of the team. “It’s been so fun getting to know all the girls. It’s surprising how humble every girl is. I came back and told my mom that I’ve never been more proud of being part of an organization where each individual girl has so much to offer, and such high standards and morals. They’re all brilliant girls and it’s so inspiring to be around them. It’s all positive energy all the time.”

That positive chemistry between the girls was evident throughout the day’s proceedings, but just like learning their new routines, it’s something that came with a lot of time and effort.

“We haven’t been able to have a minicamp or be on the actual court yet but we’re still finding opportunities outside of practice to bond and hang out and get to know each other,” said returning member Katrina. “I think this team is working out really well. We all just went to Vegas for Labor Day weekend and had a fun trip there. We’ve had sleepovers, gym classes, dance classes – just stuff like that to stay socializing with each other. We’ve been creative staying in touch with everyone.”

Although the season has yet to begin, the girls are making sure they’re ready to go once it does by practicing every week and getting their new routines down.

“We want to get on the court and dance,” said Jacy Rae, a rookie on this year’s team. “We’ve got 11 dances under our belt so we’re ready.”

“The dances are really fun and energetic,” said fellow rookie Katie. “So now I’m just making sure I know exactly what I’m doing.”

With the rookies understandably still adjusting, Spirit Dance Team Director Audrea Harris has put together a plan to have everyone on the same page throughout the season.

“We’ve paired each rookie with a veteran so they can go to that one person all season long to help them through the process,” said Harris. “The veterans have been in their shoes before and they know how crazy it can be. The rookies are doing great though. These girls have a lot of experience coming from college dance teams, NFL teams, or other places. These girls are working hard.”

As most of the rookies anxiously anticipate their STAPLES Center debut, Harris is focused on making sure they’re ready even prior to that day.

“We’ll have a lot of appearances where the girls are out there dancing before the season starts,” Harris said. “They’ll be on their toes and ready to go at any moment.”

When that time does come, the Spirit Dance Team will be sporting brand new uniforms as well.

“I’m really excited for everyone to see their new uniforms,” said Harris. “I had a vision of what I wanted and gave it to Angela King to design. It’s a jersey dress with girly features, ruffles on the bottom, and lots of sparkles. It’s athletic, but it’s very feminine. They’ll definitely wear it the first game of the season.”

But before that first game, the girls decided to give their fans a sneak peek at their look for next year.

“We’re wearing our new dresses today for the photo-shoot so I’m really excited,” said Brittany, the longest tenured member of the team. “I love all our new songs, dances, and the new choreography also.”

After a day of socializing with her teammates and getting some beautiful photos taken, Spirit Dance Team member Katrina echoed a popular opinion shared by the rest of the ladies on the team.

“We’re ready with our dances,” Katrina said. “We’re ready to go.”

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Side note: Was I there? Heck yeah! Did I take lots of pictures? Heck yeah!
Here are a few of my favorites. Stay tuned for more! ~ Sasha

NFL.com has some great action photos from week 1 of the regular season. Click here to view photos of teams from Tampa, Houston, Jacksonville, St. Louis, Kansas City, Baltimore, San Francisco, New York, and Washington D.C.

The Vancouver Sun: It’s a new National Football League season, but not all the action is between the white lines.

[Click here]

By Mike Damante
Houston Chronicle
September 14, 2011

Being in front of cameras and flashing lights is not a foreign concept for second-year Texans cheerleader Nicole. She is currently pursuing a communications degree from the University of St. Thomas to be an on-air reporter and broadcaster. Cheery disposition aside, you don’t want to mess with this second-degree black belt in Chun Kuk Do – a hybrid of Japanese and Korean karate made famous by Chuck Norris.

Q: Being a martial arts enthusiast, do you watch any mixed martial arts like UFC?

A: I do watch it, but not really. I like to spar with pads on to keep my body parts intact. It is kind of a comfort thing to the other cheerleaders to know they have a bodyguard on hand.

Q: Are guys more intimidated by the fact you are a cheerleader or the fact you can probably beat them up?

A: Probably, more of me being a black belt just because I know how to defend myself, and that could be a little intimidating. The cheerleader thing, guys think we are like mini-celebrities, but I don’t see myself as that. I’m just pursuing what I love, which is dance.

Q: I assume you get this a lot, but you look like Rihanna. What do you think of those comparisons?

A: My hair was actually cut this length to look like Rihanna. My coach sent me pictures of all of Rihanna’s hairstyles, and we went with that CoverGirl commercial look and I’ve been rocking it since.

Q: Who is your celebrity crush?

A: Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays soccer, is beautiful.

Q: Where are you on a typical Friday night?

A: If I’m not hanging out with my friends, I’m probably just enjoying a movie at home. It is very rare that I get to relax and stay at home. I take advantage of it.

Q: Is this the year the Texans make the playoffs?

A: Yes. I think it is our time!

Tennessee Titans
9/12/2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders Calendar Release Party will be held Tuesday, September 20th, at Cabana Restaurant located at 1910 Belcourt Ave. in Nashville’s Hillsboro Village.

The evening of entertainment will include a meet and greet with all the Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders, a fashion show with the ladies modeling the suits seen in the 2012 calendar and an autograph session.

After weeks of workshops and auditions held this past May, the cheerleaders, along with Titans staff, photographers, videographers and hair and makeup artists descended upon the quaint town of Seaside, Florida this past July for the swimsuit calendar photo shoot. The calendar was shot and designed by renowned Nashville photographer, Erick Anderson.

The 17 hour days started with an early morning sunrise photo session and continued throughout the day with various locations. Anderson captured the beach community in a variety of ways from the shore to their throwback 1960’s atmosphere with airstream trailers along with other various location shoots.
“Seaside provided us with a unique setting that will allow us to create a totally different look for the calendar this year,” said Stacie Kinder, director of cheerleading. “It was an incredible trip for us and we so appreciate Jon Ervin and his team at the Cottage Rental Agency for taking such good care of us and all our needs for the shoot. We had an incredible team on board this year and as they say ‘it takes a village’ to accomplish big things.”

Bill Vandiver and his team at The Edge Salon styled hair for each shot along with makeup by Visage Bella for the entire squad. The four day shoot was also captured on video with behind the scenes footage provided by videographer John Ferguson.

“We are very proud of this year’s swimsuit calendar,” said Titans Director of Cheerleaders Stacie Kinder. “I think it is our best yet, and the ladies are looking forward to an amazing debut at the release party.”

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door or at the Titans Ticket Office located at LP Field in advance. Tickets are $25 and include a calendar and VIP autograph session at the close of the show. If you are unable to attend the show, you may purchase a calendar online by visiting www.titansonline.com/cheerleaders

Click here to check out a few photos on the Houston Chronicle website!

By John Przybys
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Sep. 11, 2011

Photos by Jessica Ebelhar and Bill Hughes
[Photo Gallery]
Visit the Locomotion Dance Team online

Put some helmets on them and cover them in pads — which would be the dumbest thing ever, by the way — and the Las Vegas Locomotion’s pre-rehearsal routine isn’t all that different from the Las Vegas Locomotives’ pre-practice routine.

Locomotives players do warm-up and agility drills. So do Locomotion members, who begin their rehearsals with a series of hamstring and quadriceps stretches, leg lifts and push-ups (the guy kind, not the girl kind).

The Locomotives then spend their practice running plays, memorizing blocking assignments and pass routes and mastering the details that, together, create a foundation for success. So do Locomotion squad members, who spend their rehearsals tuning up previously learned routines and learning new ones, every one of which is complicated enough to set the head of a QB with a 46 Wonderlic to spinning.

And the fact that the Locomotives do this wearing full pads while Locomotion members work out in sports bras, shorts and tennies? Just a function of the job, really, because while the Locomotives will spend the upcoming 2011 United Football League season on the field trying to win their third straight UFL title, the Locomotion will spend its upcoming season on the sidelines, presenting the most energetic dance recital in town.

This season — which begins Saturday in Sacramento, Calif.; home games are Oct. 8, 22 and 27 at Sam Boyd Stadium — marks the second in which Las Vegas’ UFL franchise has had its own dance team/cheerleading squad. And just like the guys, the Locomotion’s 25 members have survived tryouts, and two separate cuts, to make the team.

Tami Birch, the Locomotion’s assistant director, says the current squad was whittled down from 85 walk-ons who, back in April, had to impress team administrators, judges and members of the public with their personality, their dance talents and even — given the Locomotion’s packed slate of public appearances, youth cheerleading clinics and dance camps, and charitable activities — their public speaking skills.

Members of this year’s squad range in age from 18 to 33 and come to the Locomotion with varied backgrounds, says Kim Diaz, Locomotion director and herself a veteran of the Orlando Magic (NBA) and Orlando Predators (arena football) dance teams. “We’ve got some who are in shows, some who are teachers, some who are professionals working 9 to 5, and some of them are students who are going to UNLV. We’ve got a variety.”

But all are dedicated to their art. Locomotion members attend two rehearsals a week at the Fern Adair Conservatory of the Arts. Each of those rehearsals is two to three hours long. Then, members are required to attend two one-hour “boot camps,” or physical training sessions for “endurance and muscle training,” each week, Diaz says. Then, they’ll practice routines at home, on their own, with the aid of videos Diaz posts online.

Diaz estimates that members typically devote about 10 hours a week to Locomotion business. Dancers receive $55 per game, and may also make $25 an hour for selected public appearances, although they’re required to make at least 12 appearances at community and charitable events each season for free.

The Locomotions’ game day begins two to three hours before kickoff. During each game, the team will perform about a half-dozen full routines and numerous sideline dances.

“A lot of times, even NFL cheerleaders do only maybe a few routines and not a whole lot of dancing,” Diaz notes. “We really try to jam-pack as many performances in the game as possible so fans really get to be entertained and the girls get to perform. They really love dancing.”

And fans — who can follow the squad via Facebook (www.Facebook.com/LocosCheerleading) and Twitter (@LVLocomotions) — love watching, Diaz says. “That’s why we’ve made such an effort to perform as many times as we do, so (fans) can see how really talented these girls are.”

Standards are high, and Diaz says members can be benched for such offenses as not being in shape for a game or not having learned a routine well enough. “They’re expected to be dancing-ready in every way,” she says, and members who repeatedly miss rehearsals or boot camps may be — and, Diaz says, have been — dismissed.

“We take it seriously,” she adds.

In the studio, Birch walks Locomotion dancers through a new routine that, not to get all technical about it, involves spins and other dancey stuff. The routine is broken into a seemingly endless series of eight-count chunks, probably because it’d eventually become too unwieldy to say, “one-hundred-and-twenty-two, one-hundred-and-twenty-three …”

To an outsider, it’s pretty much indecipherable and confusing. But Locomotion members make it look easy, finishing up the exhausting-even-in-slow-motion routine with a few discreet huffs and puffs and scattered “Whews.”

Then they run through it again, a bit faster this time. By the time it’s over, the routine lasts a total of 20 eight-counts plus one dramatic one at the end.

It’s a grand total of 161 counts in eight-count time. Kimie Seta hears that and laughs.

“Really?” she says, surprised. “We go to eight or 16. We don’t know.”

Seta, 22, has been dancing since she was 3, and was in sixth grade when she started dancing competitively.

“Everyone asks me: ‘How do you not mix up routines? How do you remember every step?’ I guess since I’ve been doing it for so long, it’s natural to me to not mix things up.”

Seta was on the dance team while attending Foothill High School — Locomotion squad mate Lana Carey was her high school dance coach, while squad mate Jenny Ammon coached her in middle school — and says she likes being a Locomotion member, first because it keeps her in shape at an age when, she jokes, “I could go, ‘Whoo, let’s party.’

“But I love the fact that I can come here and do what I love to do. It’s not a workout for me. I love to dance and I also love the performance aspect of it, the games. I love to go to games, and I love to have the crowd interact with us.”

Carey, like Seta, is returning to the Locomotion for her second year. Carey’s resume includes stints as a UNLV Rebel Girl, and says that now, in her seventh year of teaching, “I just wanted to be back on the field again. I do it for fun.”

“It’s not all fluff and pompons. It’s definitely a lot of hard work,” adds Carey, 29. “We’ve been together since April, working out and training and learning dances. We perform at least four or five times per game, and it has to be different each time.”

For Carey, it’s all about “just a love for dance and love for cheerleading and, also, a love for football. A lot of us are huge football fans, and it’s fun to be able to incorporate all of those together right on the field in the middle of the action.”

It doesn’t hurt that being on the team “keeps me busy,” adds Carey, whose husband, Brian, is an Air Force captain and combat rescue specialist who’s serving in Afghanistan. They married in March, and “he should be home by the first football game,” Carey says. “I’m not sure, but I hope so. I’d love for him to see me dance.”

In the meantime, Carey enjoys her own student-led cheering section at home games. “I have a little group that follows me around,” she says. ‘They usually make posters that say, ‘Go Mrs. Carey.’ It’s awesome.”

It’s Katy Veneris’ first year on the Locomotion squad, although Veneris, 20, a junior dance major at UNLV, has been dancing competitively since the second grade.

Locomotion members bring to the squad a wide range of experience, Veneris says. “We all learn from each others’ strengths. One of the girls may be really good in hip-hop and she’ll help me, who is newer to hip-hop, but I can help her with jazz technique. So it’s more of a team bonding thing.”

Many fans understand what it takes to be a Locomotion member, Veneris says, “but I know there are certain people (who), I tell them I’m a professional cheerleader, and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s an easy job.’ Then I have to tell them I have to do two boot camps and I have to do this and I have to do this, and they’re like, ‘Ohhh …’ ”

Ammon, 33, is a second-year Locomotion member and, she says, smiling, “one of the oldest ones.”

She was born and raised here and began dancing — at the Fern Adair Conservatory of the Arts, coincidentally enough — when she was 10. Ammon danced competitively throughout her youth and also has been a UNLV Rebel Girl, a Las Vegas Outlaws (XFL) cheerleader and a Las Vegas Gladiators (arena football) cheerleader.

When she’s not dancing on behalf of the Locomotives, Ammon is an aerialist/dancer at Studio 54 at the MGM Grand. There, she says, “we do routines, but a lot of it is individual. But this is a team effort. You get to meet new people and just have that group orientation — ‘Let’s do this together.’ ‘We can do it.’ ”

“For me, the performance is the best part of it,” Ammon says. “The roar of the crowd, just being there. We have little girls looking up to us and wanting to take pictures with us. When I was a little girl, I’d go to Rebels games with my dad, and I said: ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to be out there.’ “

Daily News 24
9/1/2011

Doug Flutie’s daughter, Alexa, is following in her father’s footsteps. Well kind of anyway. After getting rejected four times, Alexa Flutie finally made the New England Patriots cheerleading squad this spring and will be found on the sidelines during home games rooting on the team that her father used to play for. After two weeks of boot camp and a number of tests, Alexa Flutie was one of 31 girls that made the squad after a 300 girl tryout.

Her last name is enormous in the New England area thanks to Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary while playing for Boston College and there is no doubt that her last name has a ton to do with the coverage that this story has gotten. That and how hot she is. However, Alexa wants to achieve everything on her own and says her last name didn’t have to do with her getting the gig. I believe her and that’s evidenced by the fact that she was rejected four times previous.

Alexa Flutie joined The Fan 590 in Toronto with Jeff Sammut to talk about whether or not it was her idea to become a Patriots cheerleader, how much her dad’s football background helped her with the written portion of the tryout, whether or not she ever played football growing up, if her dad was supportive, and if she thought there would be some backlash about her getting the gig based on who she was.

Whether or not it was her idea to become a cheerleader:

“Yes it was. I mean I’ve always idolized the cheerleaders. Going to all of my dad’s football games I always looked up to them on the sidelines and it was something I wanted to do. I actually auditioned for them for the past four years I was in college and then I just got the gig this past year right when I got out of college so it was pretty exciting.”

So it took you that long?

“It did. It’s crazy. I went up against 300 girls this year and there were only 31 spots. Yeah it was pretty crazy. It was three different levels of auditions and like a two week boot camp. It’s very intense.”

Whether or not her dad’s background of football helped her with the football IQ test:

“Definitely. Growing up with football around definitely helps but some of the questions get very intense and you have to know very specific details. I know some of the things I had issues with were the postseason rules for overtime and what was the other one? Safeties. We had to know about those. It was a little more intense. Not playing sports I definitely had to study those a little bit harder.”

Whether or not she played football growing up:

“Actually I played flag football when I was younger. My best friend’s dad coached the team and she was on the team so she made me do it with her. I do have a season of football under my belt.”

How her dad reacted to her getting the cheerleader job:

“He actually was very enthusiastic about it. He supports me in everything I do especially me wanting to grow up and wanting to be a professional dancer and performer he thinks it’s great and a great opportunity. It’s just kinda cool that now his child gets to walk in his footsteps. No I’m not his son doing it but having a daughter I guess that’s pretty cool too because that doesn’t happen too often.”

On her dad being supportive and having to defend her as well:

“Well he does have to think about it as all the fans getting very rowdy and him being a dad of course being very protective of me and not wanting any negative comments or sexual innuendos, but I know he does think this is a professional thing and respects what I do. He’s very supportive and cheers me on as a cheerleader.”

If she has gotten any special treatment because of who she is:

“No I haven’t actually. Whenever I do something, especially going through auditions I like to be known as myself and not have the notoriety of my dad. I love my dad and what he has done, but now I want to do my own thing and have my own life and not look back on him. Everyone really respects that. I haven’t gotten any issues, especially from any of the girls on the team. Everyone is really supportive of me and it’s been great.”

If she thought there would be some backlash about her getting the gig based on who she was:

“I was preparing myself for that. Going into it I didn’t know how the girls would react or if they would hold it against me but I didn’t really like to bring anything up about my dad or him playing or being an Ex-Patriot. It was definitely about me. All the girls were really, really nice and supportive. That didn’t even go through their minds either so there really wasn’t an issue.”