The NFL has posted their first cheerleader game day action gallery of the season! This week’s collection of photos includes teams from the Rams, Texans, Cowboys, Jets, Jaguars, Titans, Redskins, Panthers, Patriots, Raiders, Chargers, Eagles, and 49ers. Click here and check ’em out!
How do you like the new Gold Rush outfits?
By Denise Watson Batts
The Virginian-Pilot
August 22, 2011
The excitement at this Thursday night practice is reaching the feverish pitch of a score-tied, seconds-left Super Bowl: The cheerleaders of the UFL’s Virginia Destroyers are about to get their uniforms.
Only the day before, after a month’s delay to the start of the season, the football league had announced the date of the team’s first game.
The cheerleaders realize their five months of practicing finally will meet the turf during home games at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex.
Then one of the squad’s coaches walks through the tangle of dancers and quiets them with even better news.
“Kim is on her way,” she says.
A couple of dancers gasp, and they all break into cheers. Kimberly Vaughn, their director, lost her husband five days earlier when a helicopter carrying Navy SEALs crashed in Afghanistan.
In the time since, the women had respected Vaughn’s space and privacy but couldn’t resist doing what they do best – offering support. So they rallied electronically, offering email messages and posting prayers on Facebook.
Minutes later, Vaughn walks into the Virginia Beach dance studio with some close friends, toting her 8-week-old daughter and the box of uniforms. The cheerleaders cluster around her.
Vaughn bursts into tears and the squad members try to hold back theirs.
“I really wanted to be here,” Vaughn says. “It really makes me feel better to be here.”
Whether or not the Destroyers ever line up for their first kickoff, whether or not the first fans get cozy in their seats, whether or not the troubled season has a chance to once again stall, this much is clear:
These cheerleaders have already become – to use a football term – their own special team.
Getting to this point has taken days of dance practice, building stamina for long games, and too many pulled muscles to count.
While much of the attention of the past few months has gone to the United Football League and whether there would even be a third season, the women of the cheerleading-dance squad have kept their booty shorts in place and kept on high-kicking.
Many of them feel they have something to prove. They are moms and wives, educators, businesswomen, college students studying for master’s and doctoral degrees. They have the job of spreading the word and stoking enthusiasm about the new team, but they also want people to know they are more than long legs and manicured fingernails.
Tia Godwin, 29, grew up in Detroit and danced throughout elementary, middle and high school. She learned about hard work from her mom, a single woman who worked two jobs to send Godwin to private school.
“I’ve always gotten my drive from people telling me I could not do something,” she said.
Godwin was one of a handful of minority students in her Catholic high school and always thought the wealthier students attracted the eyes of teachers. Then during her junior year, she took an accounting course, studied hard and earned a perfect A. People started paying attention to her brain.
She came to the area and earned two degrees at Hampton University, and she is now a senior consultant with the accounting firm Deloitte, specializing in audit and enterprise risk services. She’s finishing her doctorate in business administration. Then she’ll apply to law school; Harvard and Yale are at the top of her list.
Godwin was used to staying up late to finish client reports and schoolwork when she heard about the cheerleading tryouts. Once she implanted the idea in her head, she couldn’t say no, even if it meant later nights.
“Anything I would regret not doing I have to do,” Godwin said.
She was named to the squad in early April, after a rigorous tryout that brought about 40 finalists to a packed food court at MacArthur Center.
Godwin is now part of the squad of 30 women who live in all corners of Hampton Roads.
Mara VanAlstine was involved in gymnastics and cheerleading while growing up in St. Marys, Pa. Since moving to Virginia a few years ago, she has concentrated more on working out and wellness, and she regularly participates in “figure” competitions, a blend of bodybuilding and fitness.
When she heard about the Destroyer auditions, the idea reminded her how much she missed performing, so she tried out and made the team. But she wants the audience to see more than a pretty face when she’s onstage.
VanAlstine is an elementary school teacher who soon will begin a master’s program to go into counseling. In the classroom, she sees how negative images can damage young girls’ self-esteem.
Girls tend to be the ones at the cheerleaders’ public appearances who watch their every move, who look up at them – and to them.
“I definitely see myself as a role model,” said Van-Alstine, 29. “I want them to see where I am and to see what I’m capable of doing, and being around them lets them know they can be anything they want to be.”
Outsiders sometimes look at Van-Alstine, Godwin and their squad mates and wonder why professional women would want to take on the cheerleader stereotype.
The women don’t see it that way. Cheering requires fitness – the women are required to attend a gym regularly – and the routines require dance skills.
The role also taps into the women’s love of both dance and sports, and it lets them be part of something bigger than themselves.
Because some people don’t understand the attraction, the women find they are often their own best cheerleaders.
“We each have cheer buddies, and mine, matter of fact, works for one of my competitors,” Godwin said. “But it’s great to have someone who understands the struggles you go through.”
The cheerleaders take part in two three-hour practices a week, but they discovered early on that wasn’t enough. They started meeting in between cooking dinners and finishing laundry.
They’ve gone out to eat together, planned birthday parties for each other and joined hip-hop classes together to stay fit.
They celebrate their progress. They ask one another how a class or job is going. They clap at practice when the kicks that were waist-high in April now stretch to their shoulders. Head flicks are more natural, hip rolls less stilted.
At the recent Thursday practice where they’re getting their uniforms, Van-Alstine and the other women are in deep stretches on the dance floor, warming up to Rihanna’s “S&M.”
VanAlstine sits with legs spread in a wide V, her forehead almost touching the floor’s wooden surface. She peeks under her arm and sees a cheermate trying unsuccessfully to stretch herself forward.
Without a word, Van-Alstine reaches back, grabs her friend’s hand and pulls her the rest of the way.
It’s now two days later, and about 25 cheerleaders have returned to the site of their tryouts, MacArthur Center, this time wearing white Destroyer jerseys and black dance pants.
It’s Aug. 13 – a Saturday that was to have been the date of the first game of the season. The Destroyers had been set to play the Hartford Colonials, but the Connecticut team folded the week before. The league is down to four teams, and the season’s launch is now planned for Sept. 15.
Several of the women say the squad will continue to perform if the season is suspended again. They’ve become the region’s unofficial cheerleading group and have various gigs scheduled through the summer and fall. This gathering at the mall’s first-floor center court is a back-to-school rally.
About 200 onlookers line the upstairs railings and mill about the T-shaped stage and vendors’ booths. League officials introduce some players.
It is a pep rally in serious need of some pep. The players’ voices get lost in the vacuum of the mall, and shoppers are busy picking up freebies lining the area.
“We have a football team now?” a woman asks another as they check out the free bottles of vitamin water on a table.
“I guess,” the other says, shrugging, as she tugs the hand of a little girl toward stores, away from the rally.
The little girl, though, glances back at the group of eight cheerleaders climbing the stage with blue pompoms that shimmer as they move.
The first notes of Prince’s “Kiss” start thumping, and the cheerleaders start swinging their hips and arms, tossing their heads and working up a sweat, trying desperately to pump up the crowd.
A few onlookers tap their flip-flops to the beat.
Then in the back, near the Yankee Candle store, shouts of “Let’s go, ladies!” and “Work it, Whitney!” and a string of “Woo-woos!” drown out Prince.
It’s a small knot of other Destroyer cheerleaders, shaking their pompoms, doing what they do best: cheering on their friends.
Laura Kelley
Metromix Denver
August 19, 2011
[photos]
The Denver Broncos cheerleaders traded in their pom poms for racing helmets Friday night as they kicked off their 2012 Calendar Release with a little friendly competition.
The lovely ladies met up with their fans at The Track at Centennial for a little go-kart racing. Hundreds of people showed up to the event, which raised money for the Keeping Kids on Track Program. Money raised goes to help at-risk youth who are members of the Tennyson Center for Children and The Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver.
Before gearing up to hit the track, the beauties spent some time with their fans putting their Jane Hancocks on that steamy 2012 calendar (and yes, we even snagged one to put up in our Metromix office because You know, for the kids). Overall, it was a successful night with the ladies giving the pros a run for their money on the track (if you think these girls can throw a mean high kick on the field you should see them going 60 mph around the track).
If you missed the event, you didn’t miss out on the new calendar. Just head over to the Broncos Cheerleaders website to order a copy and to find out more about each and every one of the of the ladies giving the Broncos their spirit this season.
ESSEXVILLE — Former Garber High School pom-pom dancer and Michigan State Dance Team member Stephanie Estes is going pro.
By Andrew Dodson
MLive.com
8/20/2011
Last week, Estes, who grew up in Essexville and graduated from Garber in 2004, was named to the Detroit Pistons Automotion Dance Team. The 25-year-old outlasted the competition and scored a position on the team that performs at all Pistons home games and team promotional events.
“I’ve always wanted to dance for a professional team,” said Estes, who found out she made the cut last week. “And it’s great that I can continue my dance career, here in Michigan.”
Estes’ mother Amy Estes said she knew her daughter had potential at the age of 2 to be a great dancer.
“She’s been entertaining us mostly on the stage, but even at home, since she was a little girl,” said Amy Estes. “I just looked at her when she was a little girl and said, ‘That girl needs to go to dance lessons because she has something special.’ ”
So Amy Estes sent her daughter to the Perry Woodard School of Dance in Bay City and later to Miss Lore’s School of Dance in Essexville, where Stephanie says her true potential blossomed.
“Miss Lore’s school was a big influence on my dancing, and I really owe everything to them,” Stephanie Estes said.
After performing as a member of Garber’s pom-pom squad, Estes went on to Michigan State University, where she was a member of the dance team performing at Spartan football games.
She wasn’t sure if she would continue dancing after graduating from MSU with a degree in communications in 2009, so she went on to a career in modeling for the next two years.
Now, as a member of Automotion, Estes says she’s been given another opportunity to pursue her passion.
“At this point, just to be able to dance again after two years off is such an honor and very exciting for me,” she said.
Being a member of Automotion is only a part-time job, but Estes will be plenty busy as she plans to return to school at Oakland University to follow in her sister Sarah Estes’ footsteps and become a nurse.
“She’s good with people, cares about people — she’ll make a great nurse,” said Amy Estes.
Plus, studying at Oakland is much closer to the Palace of Auburn Hills where rehearsals and games takes place, Stephanie Estes added.
For now, the dancer says she’s living her dream, but will never stop aspiring for more.
“I would love to be on Dancing with the Stars, either as a star, or a dancer,” she said. “Either would be good.”
New profiles and individual uniform photos have been posted on the Titans website. Click here to learn more about the ladies on the team!
Veterans Stephanie S, Tanzye and Jessica
by: Martin Rogers
ThePostGame.com
8/19/2011
All in all, it wasn’t a bad summer to be an NFL player.
Aside from a few weeks of financial uncertainty as the shutters went up and the minds responsible for a nation’s Sunday sanity cranked out a solution, 2011 was just fine, thank you very much.
A few weeks extra vacation, with a sparkling new collective bargaining agreement containing some welcome new regulations at the end of it? Check. And, perhaps most importantly, no more of the gut-wrenching, lung-bursting, nightmare-inducing feats of sadistic torture known as two-a-day practices.
Yet while the boys of winter were kicking their heels during football’s nervous hiatus there was another group of NFL athletes that was in full training mode. A group that even now, with the new season just a long Hail Mary away, doesn’t get to put its feet up after one daily session.
They are the cheerleaders and by the time that special day in September rolls around and we remind ourselves what we’ve been missing, they will have been ‘in camp’ for six months already. Whisper it now, especially around Bart Scott, but could the hardest working people in the NFL be a bunch of girls waving pom-poms?
My old journalism professor always told me “Where lies a question, lies a story,” so with that in mind, there was no option but to find out first hand for myself. So as ThePostGame.com/Yahoo! Sports colleagues such as Michael Silver and Jason Cole headed off to various training camps around the country, I headed to Philadelphia for an NFL boot camp with a difference — cheerleader style.
A couple of emails exchanged with Philadelphia Eagles director of cheerleading Barbara Zaun laid the groundwork for what would surely be one of my more interesting assignments and although determined to approach the workout as professionally as possible, I could not resist informing some friends about how I would be spending my Tuesday night.
Cue some messages containing the kind of abuse that only extreme jealousy can produce, and I was on my way.
“These are athletes in every sense of the word,” says Suzy Zucker, as I nod my head in agreement. I try to offer something more enlightened except at this point I can barely breathe as I attempt to stretch far enough to touch my toes for the first time in about a decade. “They work as hard as anyone. I make sure of it.”
I believe her.
Zucker is the Eagles’ cheerleading choreographer and is, in the nicest sense of the word, a badass. Just 10 minutes into a three-hour session at a Bally’s Total Fitness near Lincoln Financial Field and she has already handed out some mild rebukes to the squad, especially to me, the journalistic imposter who has gatecrashed the workout and whose muscles are now paying the price.
I’d come to Philly with an open mind, but had there been any hint of preconception that the Eagles’ 38-strong squad were little more than a group of pretty dancing faces, it vanishes within the first few minutes.
First of all, there’s the athleticism. I have worked in sports journalism since 2000 and have spent countless hours of my life watching elite, world class athletes going about their practice, and if not for the fact that I’m actually taking part in the proceedings with limited success and maximum embarrassment, this would have been no different.
The top athlete’s intensity of focus, sharpness of concentration, attention to detail, and desire for perfection are all there. These cheerleaders will never score a touchdown or make a tackle, but they are sportswomen in every sense of the word.
Being in a room full of more than three dozen supremely attractive young women might have been part intimidating/part dream-come-true for a few fleeting moments, but once the workout begins, accompanied by the ear-splitting backdrop of up-tempo music, the primary focus is how to not make too big a fool of myself.
I’m destined to fail.
The start-up jogs, followed by twisting jumping jacks and various limbering up exercises are not too bad, but things quickly get uncomfortable — not to mention physically impossible for an achy 32-year-old with poor posture — when it came time to stretch in a splits position.
As I sweat and stumble, it’s all too easy for Tiffany Monroe (below right), situated to my left and gliding through the different moves with the ease of someone who had done it a thousand times before. Which she has.
Tiffany Monroe
Monroe, 28, is a five-year veteran of the Eagles cheerleading squad, and one of its senior team captains. She not only knows how to become an NFL cheerleader, but how to stay there — which may be even harder.
“We don’t get a whole lot of rest,” says Monroe, politely managing not to laugh at my latest feeble attempted maneuver. “If the team makes it deep into the playoffs we could be cheering into the New Year, and tryouts start again in March.”
The selection process, which begins with more than 500 girls each year, is both grueling and nerve-shredding. There is no favor for past performance. Every team member must reapply for her place each year, whereby the initial 500 is trimmed to a group of around 60, who are given a series of intensive “business” interviews over the following weeks to ensure they are suitable to represent the Eagles’ brand.
Those ladies then compete in a pageant-style event at the City of Brotherly Love’s Suzanne Roberts Theater, where a panel of judges chooses the final 38.
“There is a huge amount of pressure on the girls,” says Zaun. “They compete in swimsuit, dance and interview segments, we want multi-dimensional women who have beauty, fitness, danceability, intelligence, and that kind of ‘wow factor’ that makes people gravitate towards them.”
Based on what I saw, the entire squad certainly checked those boxes.
The pay may be modest, but the opportunities offered to those picked are significant, with travel to places like Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and even Iraq for photo shoots and promotional activities. Plus the small matter of getting to wear an outfit designed by Vera Wang, with the Eagles having led the way among NFL cheer squads when the famed designer put her magic touch on their clothes in 2003.
***
I’m issued a pair of pompoms and get instructed on how to “use my swagger” as I stride across the dance studio in a line of girls, shaking my shoulders and chest in a grotesque parody of the strut that comes as second nature to the cheerleaders and is enjoyed by many a football fan.
My photographer, who has volunteered for this project on the understanding that I won’t tell his wife, descends into in fits of laughter and I can only hope that the camera battery, which had been running low, will soon perish.
“You’re doing great,” smiles Tracey Dunn, a 24-year-old redhead and a new team captain (below left). “We’ve been practicing this for years but you’re picking it up.”
Tracey Dunn
There is an accountant, a sales executive, an autism treatment specialist and a teacher. Holding a full-time job or being a full-time student is actually a job requirement, to fit in with the ideal of an all-round woman the club is trying to promote.
All of which leaves precious little time for themselves. “We have rehearsals for three hours, twice a week, but there is a lot more to it than that,” says Zaun. “The girls have to work very hard to keep up their fitness so they do a lot of training on their own, and then there are Eagles-related appearances. It is an intense life and it takes a special kind of woman to do it.”
Finally, it’s time for the last part of my workout. I’ve only been taking part for a half-hour, but I’m already exhausted. The girls, of course, are just warming up.
Zucker orders me into the middle of a line of girls and quickly talks me through a routine of leg kicks and loops that I would have to perform before I could graduate from the cheer boot camp. After an uncoordinated and inflexible performance up until that point, it’s my one shot at redemption.
As the music begins, Tiffany whispered a precious piece of advice — “Don’t overthink it” –- and somehow things begin to flow. Sure, my kicks are pathetically low and not in a wide-enough arc, but at least I don’t bring the line toppling over as I had been warned to avoid.
Apparently this display is enough for a series of high fives and a round of applause from the girls, which I accept with grateful embarrassment.
As I head for the nearest drinking fountain in search of refreshment, the girls start up again, with more and more complex and contortionist routines that will soon be on display for the NFL public.
Because football is back, the wait is over, and it is time for the men in the middle to get back to center stage. But as the big kickoff approaches, bear in mind that there is another group of athletes who have worked just as hard to become the stars of Sunday.
And you don’t want to mess with them, either.
By JOE PELLETIER
Assistant Sports Editor
8/18/2011
MIDDLETOWN – One week removed from the announcement that the Hartford Colonials would not have a season this year, most of the players have already found another home. The UFL held a dispersement draft last week that sent most Colonials to another one of the four franchises, and other free agents (like former UConn running back Andre Dixon) were signed after that.
For the Colonials cheerleaders, though, contraction of the Hartford franchise meant an abrupt end to their season. No games. No practices. No time in front of 14,000 fans at Rentschler Field.
Killingworth’s Camille Kostek, 19, was one of those cheerleaders, and got the email from Colonials cheerleading coach Brittany Bonchuk just before the formal announcement on Aug. 10.
“My heart sunk,” Kostek said. “I got a text from one of my friends, and I was already sick to my stomach when I opened the email.”
Rumblings of reducing the struggling UFL to four, not five, teams had been in the air for a few months. Kostek and teammates, though, hadn’t been given any word until the contraction announcement.
“I really had no idea,” said Kostek, a rising sophomore at Eastern Connecticut State University. “We had learned things about the UFL and the Colonials players, but as far as financial things, we had no idea.”
The timing was tough for the cheerleaders, who had their professional photoshoot the week before. The announcement came only days after their official headshots and portraits went up on Facebook. [click here]
Several supporters of the “Hartford Colonials Cheerleaders” group (which has 1,190 members) wrote posts of thanks and sorrow on the group wall.
“So sorry to all of you that your dreams and hard work end like this,” Darien’s Doug Cooke wrote. “To the veterans from last year – thanks for some awesome memories. To the new girls on the squad and Brittany – sorry you won’t have your chance to shine this season. Good luck to all in whatever the future may bring.”
On Aug. 11, the day after the announcement, more squad pictures went up on the page.
“Ugh! Guys, you are all so beautiful….it makes me wanna cry,” wrote cheerleader Jessica Bella. “ I feel so happy to have met all you beautiful, talented, fun loving women. Xoxo.”
The squad practice each Monday and Thursday this summer at Goodwin College (East Hartford), and even had a promotional event right outside of Rentschler Field, the Colonials former home, on Aug. 7.
“We were all there, all glammed up,” Kostek said. “It was almost like a taste of glory. This was our home field. We were right there.”
Kostek took it hard (“I’m surprised I haven’t cried yet,” she said wistfully during the interview), especially because this was her first professional cheerleading squad. She had previously tried out to be a Patriots cheerleader and Celtics dancer to no avail.
Hope is not entirely lost for Colonials cheerleaders – UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue said he has not closed the door on the Hartford franchise: “(We) will review the viability of returning to the city at the end of this season.”
And if they do, Kostek said she and her teammates would be ready to go.
“One hundred percent,” she said.er the announcement, more squad pictures went up on the page.
By Brian D. Bridgeford
News Republic
August 18, 2011
Baraboo High School graduate Markee Huinker likes a challenge, so she feels a particularly proud this month after winning one of 12 spots on the dance team of the Minnesota Timberwolves professional basketball team. It is a dream come true, she said.
Huinker is a member of the BHS Class of 2008 and the daughter of Baraboo residents Renae and Joe Huinker. This fall she begins her senior year working toward a degree in kinesiology, the study of human movement, and dance at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus.
In a video of the selection process on the Timberwolves’ official website, Huinker’s is the first name dancers Head Coach Natalie Alvarado calls out as she names the Timberwolves Dancers for 2011-2012.
Huinker said the selection process began Aug. 1 with an open audition that winnowed about 60 young women down to 19 finalists. Everyone who wants to be on the dance team must compete, including women who won a spot in previous years.
“The 19 finalists went through a week of boot camps and rehearsals and learning choreography,” she said. “We did a production and final audition on Aug. 9.”
Huinker said it was immediately after their final performance that Coach Alvarado announced she was among the dancers selected for 2011-2012.
“We were in poses at the end and they said the names,” she said.
Renae Huinker said she is extremely proud of her daughter and happy for her.
“She sets her mind to something and she definitely succeeds,” she said. “That’s the way she has always been.”
Joe Huinker said he also is very proud of Markee. He read a quote she once put on paper that shows what a determined person she is.
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have,” he read.
Markee Huinker said she has studied dance since age 3 or 4. She began with the Penny Imray Dancers of Baraboo and then Kris Pickar’s School of Dance in Sauk City.
In high school, Huinker began traveling to Madison four or five times a week for three hours of rehearsal with a competitive dance team, West Side Performing Arts. She also was a member of the BHS pom-pon squad and its captain in junior and senior years.
“The dance I’ve done outside of school has been more ballet, jazz, tap, modern, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop,” she said. “In Madison it was with a team that traveled. It was very intense and there was a lot of discipline.”
Huinker said the discipline she learned in competitive dancing has served her in other aspects of her life.
Huinker said her kinesiology studies at UM-Twin Cities have an emphasis on exercise and health sciences. She already works teaching fitness to groups and wants to move into personal training, lifestyle and weight management coaching.
“Lifestyle and weight management coach, that’s like all around changing your lifestyle, providing you with resources to try and achieve optimal health,” she said. “It’s not just about how you eat or how you exercise, it’s also about stress management and your emotions.”
However, Huinker said she also is studying dance with an eye on a second bachelor’s degree. Winning a place on the dance team allows her to follow that love in an elite, professional environment.
“For me to be able to entertain and share my passion for dance on a professional level, that is a dream come true,” she said. “This is an absolute perfect fit because I’m also into sports and fitness.”
Huinker said being with the Timberwolves Dancers is a paid, part-time job and she hopes to be there for several years. When she looks out at the world she feels optimistic and sees many career paths open to her.
“I hope this is a stepping stone for bigger things, bigger opportunities in life as well in my dance career,” she said. “This is one opportunity that will help me grow and push me forward.”
NBC Los Angeles NFL CHEERLEADERS: The 2011 NFL season, the 92nd regular season, is scheduled to begin on Thursday, September 8. Life on a professional cheerleading squad has got to be hard work. But even when your team loses they can make you feel much better. Check out the NFL’s best cheerleaders of 2011 and pick your favs. Click here.
By Talia Malik
49ers.com
Aug 11, 2011
EXCERPT:
With the first preseason game rapidly approaching, the 49ers took a break from training camp and partnered with the Silicon Valley Leadership group to host the 5th Annual Pasta Bowl presented by SanDisk.The charity event, which took place on Tuesday night, featured the entire 49ers team, owner Dr. John York, President/CEO Jed York, coach Jim Harbaugh, general manager Trent Baalke, 49ers alumni and top Silicon Valley executives.
The Pasta Bowl began with a reception sponsored by U.S. Bank that included premier wine tasting, featuring 15 Napa Valley and Sonoma vintners, a beer garden hosted by Bud Light and Gordon Biersch, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, a Wall-of-Wine raffle, 49ers airbrush tattoos, pizza making station for kids, Sourdough Sam, and the Gold Rush cheerleaders.
The event sold out for the fifth consecutive year, bringing nearly 1,000 guests together in support of the San Francisco 49ers Foundation. Proceeds from the Pasta Bowl benefitted Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY) and City Year; the 49ers Foundation gave $50,000 to each non-profit organization at the event.
…
The event was fun for all ages as the evening winded down with a performance from the Gold Rush, a pizza tossing demonstration and a hands-on lesson from Tony Gemignani, as well as some sweet treats donated by Sprinkles Cupcakes. Even though the night served as a brief distraction from the intensity of training camp, football was still a main topic of conversation amongst the players and guests.
