by Lauren Bishop
Cincinnati.com
May 8, 2011
It all happened faster than Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco can sign a contract for a new reality show.
In January, a video about Ben-Gal cheerleader Laura Vikmanis went live on the Yahoo home page, telling the story of how the Springboro dietitian and 42-year-old single mother of two teens became the NFL’s oldest cheerleader two years ago. And she’s about to enter her third season.
Then the phone calls and Facebook messages started pouring in – and they haven’t stopped since.
“The very first call I got was from a Hollywood producer,” said Vikmanis, taking a break from a workshop for prospective Ben-Gals at Paul Brown Stadium last month. “I was kind of in shock.”
By the end of March, she had sold the rights to her life story to New Line. The studio has hired screenwriters Emily Cook and Kathy Greenberg – whose credits include “Gnomeo & Juliet” and “Ratatouille” – to tell her tale of personal triumph over the odds of making a squad made up mostly of women 20 years younger.
The film is likely one to three years away from hitting theaters, and its stars have not been cast, Vikmanis said. But she’s already fielding interview requests from all over the world and landing the sort of press that would make any A-list movie star jealous.
She recently went to New York City – her first trip there – to appear on CBS’s “The Early Show,” Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” and “Inside Edition.” And she’s made headlines around the world, like this one from The Australian: “Pom pom mum Laura Vikmanis a movie shaker.”
Vikmanis has been scheduling the interviews herself, in between meetings with clients, in addition to fielding hundreds of Facebook messages from strangers. Some have told her that they’re unemployed and that she has inspired them to find out what they want to do with their lives. A middle-aged man in the military wrote to say that he’s competing against soldiers in their 20s and was happy to hear that he’s not alone.
“People (write), ‘Is this the real Laura?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah this is still me,'” she said. “I’m not untouchable. Are you kidding me? I’m just a normal person.”
Make that a normal person who happens to have a made-for-Hollywood story. A dancer from ages 3 to 17, Vikmanis – a petite, slender blond with an ever-present smile and a voice that sounds much younger than her years – decided to try out for the Ben-Gals after her marriage ended. (She said she can’t go into further detail about that part of her life because of the movie and other pending projects.)
“I was at a point in my life where I felt lost,” she said. “I just came through a divorce and I needed to find myself again.”
When she first walked into a pre-tryouts workshop in 2008, she said felt a bit embarrassed by how much older she was than the rest of the prospective cheerleaders, but she stuck it out.
“It was more of a quest for individual self-growth and getting myself out there and gaining my confidence back versus ‘I want to be the oldest cheerleader,'” she said. “That didn’t even cross my mind.”
She was crushed when she didn’t make the squad that year.
“On the one hand, I was so proud of myself that I even tried out and got myself out there and had the confidence to do it,” She said. “On the other hand, I was like, I’m going to miss these girls. I want to come back.”
So after a year of working out and watching her diet, she tried out again in 2009 and made it. She had to list her age on her application, but she said no one ever made an issue of it.
“She just seemed like one of the girls,” said fellow Ben-Gal Brandy Sanchez, 31, who made the team at the same time. “She and I just clicked right away. She’s very down to earth, very personable, very helpful to me and very open and honest, which I loved. She did not seem like she was older.”
Even before the movie news broke, Vikmanis had inspired other older women to try out for the team, said Ben-Gals director Charlotte Jacobs.
“In the last two years, Laura’s story has prompted other women to take a second look at where they are in their lives,” Jacobs said. “But it’s a process. Laura just didn’t overnight become the person that she is physically.”
Vikmanis said she works out for about an hour just about every day, in addition to attending twice-weekly practices during the summer and through the football season. And she said she still gets game day jitters, although her teammates said they don’t notice.
“She’s competing with 21-year-old women who are coming into this experience, and she’s got literally 20 years on them,” Sanchez said. “It’s very difficult for her sometimes, but she does a phenomenal job. You’d never know that she’s nervous, if she is.”
After last month’s workshop for prospective cheerleaders, she didn’t appear nervous at all, chatting with an attendee who excitedly told her that she had seen her on TV the night before.
“People have told me, ‘The reason why I’m here is because of you,’ and it just brings tears to my eyes,” she said. “I just can’t even believe it, it’s so awesome. That was me three years ago.”
Also unbelievable to Vikmanis: That producers have asked her who should play her in the movie. (They’ve asked her not to name names publicly.)
“When the producers asked me, I just laughed,” she said. “I can’t believe that someone is asking me this and that it’s actually going to happen.”
The Ben-Gals will hold a public, final round of tryouts from 3-8 p.m.Sunday at the Newport Syndicate, 18 E. Fifth St., Newport. Tickets are $20 in advance through www.cincyticket.com and $25 at the door. All ages. Information: www.bengals.com/cheerleaders/auditions.html
MIKE GREGER
Metro Philly
May 09, 2011
Hair? Check. Makeup? Check. NFL season? Get back to us.
While owners and players remain in a vicious labor dispute, NFL cheerleaders are dusting off their pom-poms and preening for the cameras. The show must go on. The squad is already booked through the fall, and no appearances will be postponed.
“We’re forging ahead as usual with the cheerleaders,” said Barbara Zaun, the Philadelphia Eagles’ director of cheerleading. “Many of these girls have never had celebrity status and, with this, they have a built-in celebrity aura.”
Thirty-eight Eagles cheerleaders, including 15 rookies, gathered yesterday to pose for their trading card and publicity shots. The first ladies of football started by getting their hair and makeup done, then strutted — in heels and game-day outfits — for photographers.
“I feel like a football player, it’s like I have a helmet on my head,” joked Jamielee Panghulan, 21, while sitting with curlers in her hair.
Since cheerleading is a part-time gig, many are either enrolled in school or have full-time jobs. Still, that doesn’t mean the women haven’t thought about the possibility of no football. They just aren’t worried about it.
“Nah, not worried,” said Danni-Lynn Bell, 24, a four-year veteran. “We think by that time everything’s going to be fine.”
The South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Miami Dolphins players may be locked out, but the team still was able to fill its cheerleading squad.
According to miamidolphins.com, 42 women were selected out of the 77 contestants after an eight-hour competition
“We are excited about the talent and quality of women that auditioned this year!” said Emily Newton, director of Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders. “The sidelines will be full of energetic and beautiful women cheering on the Fins!”
Katie Reynolds enjoys being part of the dance crew, but she’s just as happy being a student with a 3.5 grade-point average at Long Beach State.
By Melissa Rohlin
The Los Angeles Times
May 8, 2011
Katie Reynolds leads a double life.
By day, she wears sweat pants and a cap while she attends classes at Long Beach State, where she has a 3.5 grade-point average as a communications major.
By night, she wears bright red lipstick, half a bottle of mascara and little more than a bikini as she dances in front of 19,000 people.
She’s a Laker Girl.
Reynolds keeps her opposing realities separate.
“I typically don’t tell people what I do,” she said.
That means while her classmates are discussing the previous night’s Lakers game, she’ll pretend she wasn’t sitting courtside. And while they make injury predictions about the players, she’ll pretend she doesn’t have insider knowledge.
Bearing that secret can sometimes be grueling.
When the Lakers beat Boston in Game 7 of the NBA Finals last season, she stayed awake until 2:30 a.m. picking confetti out of her hair and shaking with excitement. The following morning, she sat quietly in the back of a classroom as everyone talked about it.
“That’s the hardest it’s ever been for me to not say anything,” she said.
She said she’s been recognized only once — a fan recently saw her bikini spread in a Laker Girl calendar and approached her on campus … something she’s tried to avoid.
Reynolds, 23, has been on the team for four years.
The turnover rate, she said, is closer to two years since the girls must try out each season — often competing against 500 to 800 hopefuls — and are expected to maintain a similar weight and look each year.
Reynolds describes dancing in front of a sold-out Staples Center crowd as “surreal” and being a Laker Girl as the “pinnacle of the professional dancing world.”
She’s witnessed the power of a Kobe Bryant dunk from a few feet away, had her photograph taken with actor Gerard Butler and tripped in front of radio personality Ryan Seacrest — accidentally, she insists.
“I’m blessed,” she said with a smile.
Even though the Laker Girls and players share the same court, they don’t interact much.
Reynolds said she’s a huge fan and even tracks many of the players’ statistics during a game, but she doubts that any of them know her name.
For Reynolds, game days are six-hour stints that involve hundreds of twirls and leg kicks, smiling until her face cramps and multiple costume changes under dire time pressure.
Practices are twice a week, three hours a day. She said she often wakes up at 6 a.m. to attend a class and doesn’t return home until 10:30 p.m.
“There have been times when you think to yourself, ‘I hope someone doesn’t think I’m just a dumb cheerleader,’ ” she said. “If you really get to know us … we really change that perspective.”
This was Reynolds’ last season.
Not surprisingly, she timed her exit to correspond with one of her hero’s.
“I think I’m going to hang it up and retire with Phil Jackson,” she said. “Not many people can say that.”
HoustonTexans.com
May 8, 2011
[Photos of the announcement]
[Video of the announcement]
Tuesday night at The Methodist Training Center, 32 aspiring Houston Texans Cheerleaders were chosen for the 2011 squad. Cheerleading coordinator Alto Gary made the announcement at 6:30, and was relieved after she finished picking the team from a group of 53 finalists. Gary said that some members of this year’s crew were decided upon late in the process.
“There were some quetsions even until the last second on some people,” Gary explained. “But it’s over. It’s done. They’re here. They’ve joined the legacy of our first year girls, and it was just amazing.”
Gary added a twist to this year’s announcement, as she invited more than a dozen of the original cheerleaders to help welcome the 2011 ones, which they did with a rose and a hug.
As for the 2011 cheerleaders, they were chosen after a tryout process that included three rounds over a weekend in early April, and a performance at the 2011 Houston Texans Draft party. In between those tryouts and the party, the 53 finalists practiced multiple times a week in that span. Needless to say, making the squad came as a huge relief to first-timers as well as veterans.
“It feels great,” Jermani, who was a rookie in 2010, exclaimed shortly after the announcement. “I am so, so proud of myself and the girls. We did a wonderful job. We did what we had to do, which was practice and dance hard. I’m calm for right now, but when I get home I’ll be crying.”
Meanwhile, Charlotte, who will be a rookie in 2011 was thankful after being one of the final 32.
“I’m so excited. I’m still shaking from the news. But I’m so blessed to be here right now,” she said.
As has been the case throughout the 10-year history of the squad, this year’s team will feature a few members who tried out in the past but fell short, only to return again and triumph. Danielle was one who fell into that group.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, but it’s a dream come true,” Danielle said. “I was like ‘Can you repeat the number, just to make sure?’ I’m so excited and I can’t wait. I was here last year and I made it to the finals. I knew what to do and how to train. I came out here more confident and just went out and did my best.”
The 2011 squad will again feature a pair of twins: Dresdynn and Schuyler from Victoria, and Michelle and Rachel from Bellaire. Michelle, Dresdynn and Schuyler were rookies last season, and Rachel decided to join her sister and tried out in 2011. The pair from Bellaire was emotional after they made it.
“I was in the car last year waiting for her to tell me the news,” Rachel said. It’s a totally different feeling. We both worked so hard.”
The team will now start practicing in preparation for next season, and they’ll also make numerous appearances at events on behalf of the franchise.
ABC13: The Houston Texans cheerleader finalists performed at their last practice before the 2011 squad is announced. Click here to see the photos.
I’m officially a Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader!
by Jaimelee
PhiladelphiaEagles.com
Hi Eagles fans!
My name is Jamielee and this is my first year on the squad as a Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader!!! This has always been a dream of mine, my hard work and dedication has finally paid off! I am proud of myself that I made this team on my first try. I can’t explain how excited I am to be apart of the Philadelphia Eagles organization.
I would like to share my entire audition process with you! Okay here we go…….
Well one day after work in the morning, I wanted to go home and take a nap because it was a rainy day and I was feeling sleepy. I got home, sat on the recliner chair in the living room and tried falling asleep. I tossed and turned trying to get comfortable but I couldn’t. I laid there in the recliner, closed my eyes and something popped into my head. Philadelphia Eagles Auditions! It was a random thought because I wasn’t thinking anything about the Eagles. So I quickly went online on my phone and googled 2011 Philadelphia Eagles Auditions. There were two workshops: a mock workshop and a dance workshop. These workshops were not mandatory in the audition process but were great for experience. I was reading through all of the information about both workshops and was very interested but then I saw the date and realized that it was the next day! Thoughts were going through my head like “Oh no, I have to work tomorrow and its too late to request off . I won’t be able to make it.” The mock audition workshop this year gave us the opportunity to learn the audition dance prior to open call auditions, so I was really stressing about work because I really wanted to take advantage of learning the dance for open call. In the end, my supervisor understood that I really wanted to be a Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader and let me have the day off! I attended both workshops and was ready for open call auditions.
I parked in front of the Lincoln Financial Field, took a deep breath and walked inside for open call auditions. Walking into the room for open call was very intimidating because there were hundreds of beautiful girls that were there for a spot on the squad. Being taught the open call dance at the workshop was extremely helpful!!! While Suzy, the choreographer was teaching the dance to the women who didn’t know the dance, it allowed me to get more practice for the dance and gave me more time to put my personality into the routine. There were two cuts that day and waiting to hear you number is probably the most nerve racking thing, not performing the dance in front of the judges. Sitting there waiting for my number to be called for both cuts made my heart pump so fast. Every time the announcer said a number, I crossed my fingers hoping he would call mine. My number was called for both cuts, I gave a huge sigh in relief. I was so happy I was going to semi finals!
Semi Finals were held at the Nova Care complex. At this point, I’m extremely nervous! I thought this was a crucial part of the audition because this was part of the audition that you needed to show everything you got to proceed to finals. For semi finals we tried out in groups of three. I was a little mad at myself after my audition because I did mess up one part of the dance but I didn’t just stand there and not do the rest of the dance, I smiled and came back in to finish the dance. When you forget a step or mess up a part of any dance you need to look confident, not look obvious that you messed up. To find out if you advanced, you had to call a hotline to see if you were going to finals. I remember how happy I was when I heard my name on the hotline! I couldn’t believe I was going to final auditions, I was more more step closer in being a Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader!! Time to work out, eat healthy and practice, practice, practice!
I thought that final auditions went by so quickly. I got to spend time with the other ladies auditioning and the vets who were on the team previous years. In my dressing room there was about 15 women who had to share a small space to change outfits, put on make up and touch up their hair. Everyone was so nice, we all were helping each other with either straightening or curling hair and applying make up. When we had some down time we would introduce ourselves to each other and practice answering interview questions for the interview part of the audition. My mom, dad, aunt, former dance coach, and 2 fomer team mates I used to dance with came to support me at final auditions. I also had a lot of friends and family watch the finals on the eagles website live. After final auditions were over, I just wanted to lay in my bed and sleep! I woke up early the following morning becuase I was so anxious and very nervous I couldnt lay down any longer. So I went to the bagelry in my area to get breakfast for my mom and I. I pulled up to drive through and I was told to please hold. So I waited in my car patiently, going through songs on my cd and my cell phone goes off. It was an email notification. I opened my gmail and read the words ” CONGRATULATIONS 2011 PHILADELPHIA EAGLES CHEERLEADER.” I was speechless! As soon as I was done reading those words the lady at the drive thru goes” What can I get you?” I was so in shock that I didn’t even remember what I was getting there. I ordered our breakfast & while waiting in line, I called everyone in my family. When I told my mom she started crying, which made cry. So when I pulled up to the window to get the food, I was covered in tears of joy and said thank you while wiping my tears away. I just want to thank everyone in my life that has supported me though out this whole process especially my family! If it wasn’t for all the positive support and believing in me everyday, I don’t think I would of believed in myself as much as I should have without you!! I’m so thankful to be apart of the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader!
Wow, Im exhausted typing all this. I really hope you enjoyed reading my first Eagles blog! There will be plenty more to come about my first eagles trading card photo shoot, a typical day, my family, and planning my graduation party!!! Cant wait!
E*A*G*L*E*S EAGLES!
*Jamielee
[Photos]
Ashley Petry
Star correspondent
May 7, 2011
To Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders, Theresa Pottratz is simply “Mama T.” After working for decades in musical theater, the cheerleading coordinator is now in her fourth season with the Colts, managing everything from emotional auditions to international appearances.
On April 27, she wrapped up the annual three-week audition process, selecting about 35 young women to represent the Colts during the upcoming football season. The process started April 9 with about 200 aspiring cheerleaders, and Pottratz and other judges had been making cuts — many of them painful — every few days since.
What is the audition process like?
In the first round, (the choreography) is fairly short and simple, because we’re looking for overall fitness and whether they can keep a beat. We cut it to 100 girls (on the first day). If they make it through that, they come every Tuesday and Thursday; usually on Tuesdays they learn a routine, and on Thursdays they perform for the judges again. It gets harder and harder, particularly for me, because I tend to get attached really quick, and I have to make those objective cuts without thinking, “Oh, she’s really sweet.”
What are you looking for in terms of appearance?
We really look for athletic, fit girls. It used to be more looking for the anorexic, model type, but that’s not what we’re looking for, because we really want them to be role models.
How do you manage the emotional drama?
One of the things we look for in auditions is girls who can get along. I always tell them, “I don’t need any divas.” You have to get along with all of your teammates . . . you have to be professional. You have to go to an appearance and act like there’s nowhere else in the world you’d rather be.
What is a typical game day like?
We arrive about 61/2 hours (before the game), and we’re the first on the field. We usually practice for an hour, and if we have a halftime show, we practice for two hours. Tyler Mason comes in and starts doing hair and makeup about three hours out, and once the gates open about two hours out, we start doing appearances.
What rules do the cheerleaders have to follow?
The most important rule is how they represent the organization. I feel like they always need to be on top of their game, particularly if they’re at an appearance. Any time they are dressed representing the Colts, they need to behave in the way we expect them to behave.
People joke that athletes’ uniforms are getting larger and cheerleaders’ uniforms are getting smaller. Where do you draw the line?
That’s an interesting conversation we have all the time, because there’s a fine line between being sexy and being slutty. I’m an old-fashioned, conservative Catholic girl, so “Mama T” wants to keep her girls in line.
Have you ever had to break up a player and a cheerleader?
I personally have not. We don’t encourage fraternization, and none of the teams do.
What changes are you seeing in the professional cheerleading community?
I think in general there’s more respect — that they’re beautiful, but they’re also smart, well-educated women, and they’re very talented. . . . We get a lot of requests to come into schools and speak to young girls about achieving their goals. I don’t think we used to do as much of that.
Are you a big football fan?
I’ve always been a big football fan. As soon as the Colts moved here in 1984, my husband and I were excited. It was the same year we got married.
What advice would you offer to aspiring Colts cheerleaders?
Showmanship is huge. You can get away with missing some dance steps if you have a genuine smile on your face.
Making the squad
By Andrew Matheson
Hollister Freelance
May 6, 2011
Susie Sanchez stood on the stage for all of 90 seconds, although it perhaps felt like she was up there all day.
The preliminary tryout for the Oakland Raiderettes cheerleading team had been going since 8 a.m., and although the initial stage in the tryout process lasted less than two minutes per cheerleading hopeful, there was approximately 232 entrants to narrow down, and only so much time to make a lasting impression.
Ninety seconds isn’t much, then, to stand out just enough to advance to the following round.
“They want to see confidence, if you can hold yourself up there,” said Sanchez, a Hollister resident. “It’s the PR side.”
And what’s discussed on stage doesn’t usually go beyond autobiographical information – your height, your eye color. “The basics,” Sanchez said.
So when it was finally Sanchez’s turn to stand out, she walked onto the stage and said she was 37 years old, a mother of three, and a grandmother of one.
She felt her answer might have drawn the attention of the judges when she saw one perk up. Was it the age? Or the grandmother part?
What was for sure was that it wasn’t the only factor. Sanchez again impressed the judges with her dancing ability, skill and presence later that week – she has been dancing since she was 8, after all – and she can now safely say she is the oldest member of the Raiderettes as well.
“I just started crying,” she said after she heard her number called – lucky No. 45. “It was like, ‘wow.’ I was overwhelmed with emotion … just never give up.”
“It’s life changing at that moment.”
Sanchez’s journey hasn’t even started yet, but simply making the Raiderettes was the culmination of a life’s worth of training and hard work that all started with a 90-second meet-and-greet process one day, and ended with a 63-second dance routine a week later.
“Honestly, we look for someone who walks into a room and captures your attention,” Raiderette Director Jeanette Thompson said. “She has a wonderful smile and a confidence about her that not everyone has.”
Out of 232 participants, Sanchez was one of 115 to make the final audition, then one of a select 41 to make the final team, and it couldn’t have come at a moment too soon for the Hollister dancer.
Trying out for the Oakland Raiderettes for the fifth time in six years, Sanchez feels this year’s audition was likely her last.
“I’m still at the pinch-me-now stage,” she said.
—
Even at a young age, Sanchez knew she wanted to be a dancer, although she was initially thinking Broadway when she was growing up and training at Lana’s Dance Studio in Morgan Hill.
But after having her first child when she was 20, Sanchez instead entered the corporate world, where she would work for IBM for the next 11 years.
She didn’t switch careers until one day when a co-worker simply asked her where she found her inspiration. The answer, of course, was the same one she had from when she was a little girl.
“I said dancing,” Sanchez said.
Having previously moved to Hollister in 1999, Sanchez opened Dancing Days in 2004 in order to feed her passion, while later taking classes at Monterey Peninsula College in order to see if she still had the ability to perform.
“It was like riding a bike,” she said.
“And it was fun teaching and owning a studio, but I wanted to be on the performance side,” she added.
Sanchez can still recall where she was when it hit her, what she was doing when she realized how she could “live her dream locally.”
She was doing squats at Gold’s Gym when she figured trying out for the NFLs Raiders would be a good idea.
“It fell from God,” she said of the epiphany.
Of course, making the team was a different story. Sanchez said she just showed up in 2006, without any knowledge or expectations, and not having participated in the team’s pre-tryout workshop, either.
She didn’t make it out of prelims.
The next two years fared a bit better. She advanced to the final audition in 2007 and 2008, but again fell short of making the team.
In 2009, though, admittedly a bit overconfident after she had advanced to the final audition the previous two years, Sanchez again didn’t make it out of prelims, and was instead cut before given the chance of learning the routine.
That’s when the San Jose Wolves, of the now folded American Indoor Football Association West, “came out of the blue.”
“Susie is like no one else,” said Wolves’ Dance Team Director Teri Schafer, who has known Sanchez for the last year and a half and who worked with her last season. “I’m in my 11th year coaching, and she’s probably the hardest working person I have ever had. She’s an inspiration for everybody, to see her determination. She wants to be on a pro dance team.”
Schafer said she knew from Day 1 that she was going to pick Sanchez for the squad.
“She was just a shoe-in,” she said. “I’m sure any girl who cheered with her last year would tell you the same thing.
“It was great to have her around. Even though she was older than the other girls, it didn’t matter.”
—
Sanchez’s age had never been a deterrent from cheerleading, and she believes her maturity has only helped her through the process.
But it’s worth noting that Sanchez had been following the stories of Ben-Gals cheerleader Laura Vikmanis who at 42, is the oldest cheerleader in the NFL.
But, reportedly, she isn’t a grandmother like Sanchez.
“I just think this is my time,” she said. “It’s all about confidence and determination.”
Trying out for a fifth time earlier this year, though, Sanchez was more confident and ready than she had perhaps ever been – it was evident to Thompson and others, at least.
Although she made the final audition twice before in recent years – the final round consists of the team’s dance routine as well as an interview – making the final cut was perhaps aided, she feels, by the confidence and experience she gained while performing for the San Jose Wolves
With a professional cheerleading team on her resume, and entering the tryout with a calm, no-pressure approach, Sanchez, with a helpful push from her family, gave it one last, well, RAH!
“This was going to be my final year of auditions. I was just seeing if I had a chance, with my San Jose Wolves dance card,” Sanchez said. “I figured I was going to try out one more year, because it was such a letdown in ’08. It’s very emotional when you don’t get called. But my family, my husband, they were saying I should try out one more time.”
Schafer supplied a motivational push as well.
“She decided to give it one more shot,” said Schafer, who was a former Raiderette in 1997. “I told her, if you are going to try out, you need to try out for the Raiders.”
After surviving prelims on April 10, Sanchez returned to the Oakland Hilton on the following Tuesday and Thursday to learn the dance routine for Sunday’s final – a fast, jazzy routine that lasted 63 seconds. Said Sanchez, “Luckily, knock on wood, I didn’t mess up once.”
A three-question interview took place later, and Sanchez said she felt confident answering whatever the judges asked of her.
“With Susie, being more mature, she’s a great representative for the community,” Schafer said. “She’ll be a great representative for the Raiderettes.”
Sanchez said she owes a lot to Schafer, believing her year with the Wolves, and everything that came with it, may have been the difference in the end.
“Do I have a little bit better chance now?” Sanchez asked. “If you don’t go out, you’ll never know. And I’m one of those people that can’t live with the what-if.”
