Here’s a little more detail on who made training camp. Mind you, this is not an OFFICIAL list. The team wants you to watch the CMT show this summer, so it’s unlikely they will spoil it by publishing the names of those who were selected. So the information below is coming from me, based on a few reliable sources and some educated guesses. I’m about 95% confident that this is correct (although I freely admit that Elizabeth and Emily are guesses based on nothing more than eyeballing the group photo and the process of elimination.)
I will post updates as needed. I rely on all of you to set me straight, so please post corrections in the comments section. (Comments are moderated, so do not be alarmed if your comment doesn’t appear immediately.)
Is that enough of a disclaimer? Ok, moving on.
First some stats:
* There were 36 cheerleaders on last year’s team. Of those, 13 retired. (Retirees: Abby, Ashley F, Brittney, Courtney, Emma, Jennifer E, Jessica M, Jordan, Katy, Nicole, Samantha, Sydney, and Veronica)
* 82 candidates participated in final auditions (23 veterans and 59 rookie candidates)
* 46 were selected (20 veterans and 26 rookie candidates)
* Unfortunately, 3 veterans who reauditioned were not selected, Ashley P, Breelan, and Jasmine
* 14 rookie candidates had been selected as finalists in 2013 or 2014. Of those, 3 were selected to this year’s training camp (Courtney, Robin, and Taylor S). All three were finalists last year but did not make it to training camp.)
* Seven of the rookie candidates selected to training camp are alumni of other teams: Amy T (New York Knicks), Chantel (Dallas Mavericks), Courtney (Dallas Stars), Robin (Texas Legends), Rose (Allen Americans), Shelbi (Texas Star Dancers), and Stephanie (Allen Americans, Update: she is also a former Milwaukee Bucks Dancer)
* Update: One dancer from 2014 training camp (Christina), and one dancer from 2013 training camp (Ashley S.) were selected as finalists again this year, but unfortunately were not invited to training camp this time around.
* Update:The word from Jess in the comments is that Colby won the fan vote. Thanks Jess!
So here’s who made the cut this time. Click the photo to view full size:
Training camp veterans. Click the photo to view full size:
Training camp rookies. Click the photo to view full size:
Click here to check out photos from last week’s final round of auditions for the Cincinnati Bengals Cheerleaders!
The DCC have just announced the members of their 2015 training camp. These ladies will spend the next several months learning, rehearsing, and competing for the final 36(ish) spots on the 2015 Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders team. Congrats ladies. See you on “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team” Season 10!
(Click to view full size)
BY ALLIE HINGA
The Joplin Globe
May 9, 2015
REEDS, Mo. — When Holly Powell was a child, she watched the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on TV.
Ever since, she’s been training so maybe one day she could make the squad.
“That’s what I want to be a part of,” she said.
Now, she’s closing in on doing just that. Powell, of Reeds, is a finalist for a spot on the squad.
“It feels amazing to be a finalist,” she said Friday in a phone interview. “Especially for this organization, because they’re the best of the best.”
At 18 years old, she’s also one of the youngest in the running. Powell currently is about to receive her high school diploma.
Powell has been home-schooled her junior and senior years to accommodate her pursuit of dancing. She started dancing at 3 years old and reached the point where she was commuting extensively to obtain training at various dance studios.
“It’s my life,” she said of dancing. “I love it. I don’t think I would want to do anything else.”
She’s skilled in all genres of dance, she said, which translates well into cheerleading.
“I definitely take my training very seriously,” she said.
Powell traveled to Dallas with her mom and aunt for auditions. On the first day of the competition, she performed a short improvised dance. The next day was filled with learning a short choreographed dance and a kick line, and performing those for the judges. Also part of the audition steps is a written test covering questions about the NFL, dance terminology and current events, among other topics.
“It’s a very strenuous process, but I definitely think that I’m doing very well,” she said Friday. “I’m very excited to be headed into finals.”
On Friday, Powell was doing interviews, and today will perform a solo, as well as the dances she learned earlier in her auditions. Later today, an announcement will be made as to who will head to training camp, after which the final squad will be determined.
“You can’t say you didn’t try,” she said Friday. “You have to try.”
…
In addition to Powell, another woman with ties to the area is among the finalists. She is Kaleigh Lundy Walker, a native of Pittsburg, Kan.
The members of the 2015-16 Cincinnati Ben-Gals were announced yesterday. This year’s squad of 29 includes 11 rookies and 18 veterans, and among the vets are 3 who are returning after a hiatus from the team (Alyson, Keri, and Seazun) Congrats to all!
[[Click here to view the full size versions of the photos below.]]
Seazun Clark was a rookie Ben-Gal back in 1999. That’s her rookie photo down below. During her time as a Ben-Gal she was a team captain and choreographer, and represented her teammates at the 2006 NFL Cheerleader Challenge and and the 2003 Pro Bowl. She accomplished a lot with the Bengals. Not too shabby for a midwestern girl with no formal dance training! She had been a cheerleader in middle school and high school and was on her college dance team and that experience had worked in her favor.
After four seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, Seazun retired to focus on completing her undergraduate degree. She did consider auditioning for the Indianapolis Pacers Pacemates dance team, but backed off once she realized how time intensive the job would be. So she took 2004 off, and in 2005 auditioned for the Indianapolis Colts Cheerleaders. (The idea of joining the Colts had been brewing since she met Colts Cheerleader Joy at the Pro Bowl.) Seazun was a Colts cheerleader for 3 seasons, from 2005-2008. She was a team captain and cheered on the sidelines at Super Bowl XLI in 2007 when the Colts defeated the Chicago Bears.
After retiring from the Colts, Seazun knew she still had plenty of dancing to do and now that her schedule would allow it, she followed through on auditioning for the Pacemates. Once again, she made the team on her first try, and was was a Pacemate for two seasons before retiring.
And that was the last I knew about her…until this week when she showed up on Bengals.com as a finalist for the 2015-16 Ben-Gals.
Yesssss girl! Get it! She looks better than ever and must be dancing better than ever, because she was chosen to join the team. It’s all very “full circle” isn’t it?
Congrats and best of luck Seazun! We’re looking forward to seeing more of you this season!
The San Jose SaberCats website has been updated with new bios and photos of this year’s SaberKittens dance team. Click here to learn more about the ladies on the team!
Rookies Amanda and Payton
MorningSun.net
May 6, 2015
Pittsburg’s Kaleigh Lundy Walker is currently living in a dream and on the cusp of becoming a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.
“It’s definitely been a dream of mine to audition, but to make it this far has been just a really great experience and makes me feel very accomplished and proud of myself for making it this far,” Walker said.
Last Saturday, Walker was one of several hundred who auditioned for a spot on the squad and was one of the 132 that were successfully welcomed to the semifinals round on Sunday. After learning a minute-long dance routine and the kick line, she became one of 59 finalists for the final rounds this Friday and Saturday.
With a passion for dance that was born right here in Pittsburg, Walker has taken those skills all the way to Dallas — where she currently lives — and aiming at the stars to earn a coveted spot on the Dallas Cowboy cheerleading squad.
Walker — born in Augusta in 1983 — moved to Pittsburg when she about seven years old when her father Gary Lundy — currently the chairman of the board — came to work for Watco Companies in 1991. She attended St. Mary’s Colgan and graduated in 2001, then earned her degree in journalism at the University of Kansas.
While she was at St. Mary’s Colgan High School, she served as the captain of the school’s dance team and also danced at Jody Phillips Dance Company in town.
“It’s been a huge passion of mine,” Walker said. “My sisters and I grew up dancing, my mom (Susie Lundy) was a dance teacher in Pittsburg, so it’s just been a big part of our lives.”
For the last 10 years, Walker has lived in Los Angeles, where she met her husband Russell — who also attended KU at the same time she did, but didn’t meet her until an alumni event in L.A. They moved to Dallas about a month ago.
“My husband is from Oklahoma and obviously I’m from Kansas, so we were kind of just ready to be a little bit closer to family and we still wanted to be in a big city,” Walker said. “We thought Dallas was a good fit.”
Russell, who owns a wood flooring company, said he’s proud of her accomplishments already, but also laughingly chimed in that if she becomes a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, he’s going to be dropping that title in introductions and conversations all the time.
“I think it’s incredible. At her age — she’s 31 — she’s really been deadset on this for several years and have really gone out and made the best of her efforts,” Russell said. “… She’s incredibly goal-oriented and hasn’t missed a beat. She does it all in stride.”
KTRE.com | Lufkin and Nacogdoches, Texas
By Jeff Awtrey
KTRE.com
May 06, 2015
A Lufkin woman who was the first black captain of the high school dance team is seeing her dream to become a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader take another step.
Khalyn Cole is a finalist in the competition to attend the squad’s training camp.
The public can vote for one finalist to receive an automatic bid to go to training camp by voting here.
Cole graduated from Lufkin High in 2012 and is finishing up her third year as a dancer at North Texas.
However, a young Khalyn Cole wasn’t sure if dance was for her.
“She didn’t want to to dance,” said mother Melinda Cole. “She would go to the classes and just cry.”
On Wednesday, Melinda Cole anxiously awaited her daughter’s fate in the final rounds of the elite Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader auditions.
“The young lady that receives the most fan votes, they automatically go to the next level,” Melinda Cole said.
We were able to Facetime with the very excited UNT junior, who says she is counting her blessings.
“It’s very fortunate to have made it this far,” said Khalyn Cole. “We started with somewhere between 200 to 250 girls on the first day of auditions and now its gotten down to around 50 to 60 girls.”
The former Lufkin Panther Pride captain admits her East Texas dance training has guided her to this point
“I’m really looking forward to showing my solo to the judges and also the veterans, who are also current Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders now,” said Khalyn Cole. “So I’m really just excited to meet them and dance with them as well.”
With another huge audition in front of her, one would think that she is nervous.
“No, I’m not scared,” said Khalyn Cole. “I really love to perform, so I’m just really excited to show my personality through my solo to the judges, so that they can get to know me better.”
Ryan Comer
Standard Examiner
May 6, 2015
ARLINGTON, Texas — Madeline Massingill knew after having already watched 124 aspiring Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders introduce themselves at the 2015 tryouts at AT&T Stadium that she needed to say something unique to set herself apart.
The 18-year-old Fremont High senior set to graduate next week thought of what turned out to be the perfect introduction.
“I said, ‘Hi, I’m Madeline Massingill, I’m from Farr West, Utah and I’m a Mormon,’” Massingill started.
The declaration was apparently a shock to Charlotte Jones, the daughter of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who has been in charge of helping to judge the competition, because according to Massingill, her eyes suddenly got very big.
“‘I know what you’re thinking,’” Massingill continued. “‘No, my dad doesn’t have five wives,’”
Massingill knew the introduction had the desired effect when she ran into a producer later on.
“He wasn’t in the room when I introduced myself – and he said, ‘Are you the Mormon girl?’” Massingill said. “He said, ‘You were the talk of the room.’”
Massingill, who says she has danced ever since she knew how to walk and was a member of the Silverline drill team for three years, was one of 500 women to audition for a position on the Cowboys’ cheerleading squad at the preliminary tryouts last Saturday. Massingill survived the preliminaries as well as the semifinals and is one of 50 women remaining in the competition.
“It’s been an incredible experience,” Massingill said. “I’ve always wanted to dance professionally, take it somewhere else. I didn’t know who for. I thought about the Lakers and becoming a Lakers girl, but being a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader was always in the back of my mind. They’re the best of the best. Why not go for it?”
Massingill will have a panel interview Friday followed by a solo routine Saturday to determine if she is one of 35 girls to advance to training camp, which will be held at Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas on June 1.
Massingill can also guarantee a spot at training camp if she wins an online vote. According to her mother, Misty Robbins, Massingill is currently in second place.
Part of the audition process to this point has involved taking a 90-plus question exam that quizzed the prospective cheerleaders on subjects ranging from Cowboys history to dance questions to current events.
“My dad is a Dallas Cowboys fan and he’s originally from Texas so I knew a few things, but not like in depth, so studying with my dad was fun because I got to learn things that even my dad didn’t know about the history,” Massingill said.
Massingill never found out what she got on the exam, but knew she had to have done well because she advanced.
Massingill’s mother finds herself awestruck by the enormity of the situation.
“We’re from Farr West, this small town, and I feel like she’s a confident girl and she’s worked really hard but then you get in a place of this enormity and the first day you’re, ‘Oh, my gosh! What have we gotten into?’ It’s crazy,” Robbins said.
