Vikings.com: Once again, Vikings fans will help determine the cover of the 2009 Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders Swimsuit Calendar. Eight ladies will be vying for a spot on the cover, and their fates will be determined by fan voting on Vikings.com.
The first matchup features Andrea vs. Kristina. To vote for who you think should advance, click here.
Voting for the first quarterfinal runs from May 12 through May 18.
Colts.com
Saturday, May 9
Rounds One and Two of Colts Cheerleader Auditions were held at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center this Saturday. 83 candidates remain and you can vote for your favorites! Click here to Vote now!
Photos and Biography information from the Colts Cheerleader Candidates is available now on Colts.com. Video Highlights from the Auditions will be coming on Monday, followed by a fuller in-depth piece later in the week.
Last month I blogged about the Charger Girl open call auditions. I posted some photos and said there were lots more coming. Well at long last, here’s the “lots more.”
I tried to get at least one photo of everyone there. I didn’t quite get there, but I came close. Good luck trying to get through all of them in one sitting! Mwahahahahahaha….
(PS: I guessed on some of the names. I had to scribble ‘em real fast while the girls were introducing themselves. If you have edits, or can identify anyone I didn’t name, please let me know: sasha@procheerleaderblog.com)
Steve Overmyer
NewYorkJets.com
When I was first asked to be a judge for the Jets Flight Crew finals, I thanked my lucky stars for the opportunity. What red-blooded American guy wouldn’t love a day like that? But it turned out to be a very difficult day … OK, who am I kidding. It was AWESOME!
This was the first time I’d visited Pacha on 46th and 12th during the day. Walking in to the six-level club by The Intrepid, I was greeted by a room full of beautiful dancers doing pirouettes and practicing their routines. I knew immediately this was going to be a tougher competition than last season. Last year I chronicled the entire Flight Crew selection process from day one, with 400 ladies at the tryout, all the way to the end. Even though we knew this year’s team was expanding, I could tell the challengers in the room were going to give the incumbent crew a run for their money.
Flight Crew director Denise Garvey gathered all the judges around to explain the process and what the girls would be judged on. They had this decision-making process worked out to a science with boxes for notes on all categories. I believe this is exactly how Rex Ryan and his coaches start their evaluations on the players, though I’d imagine dance technique is not a high requirement for the Jets. (In case you were wondering, Leon Washington would be the best dancer on the Jets judging by his showmanship doing the “Crank Dat” dance in practice.)
I chose this time to tell Kerry Rhodes that we’ll put a mic on him for the competition so we can do a story on his judging method. “No, you will not!” was his response. OK, that’s the last quote I’ll use from Kerry in this report. (You’re welcome, Kerry.)
The competition was fierce. The first group came up and one of the girls winked in my general direction. After conferring with Kerry and CBS sportscaster Sam Ryan, we were sure that was not a wink and had to be just a bit of dust in her eye. She still got my vote.
The competitors came up in groups of five and did the same routine twice each. Everyone knew the steps, which made it incredibly difficult distinguishing between the good and great dancers. What should I look for? Balance? Leg kick? Smile? And boom, the song is over. Do you know how tough it is to watch five beautiful girls at the same time and only have 30 seconds? Honestly, it was nearly a system overload.
I sat between Kerry and Sam and while Sam’s notes were precise and well thought out, Kerry’s were a simple yes or no. We only knew the girls by number, but I won’t be able to look at the numbers 27 or 43 without my heart skipping a beat from this day forth.
In the judges’ chambers we gathered for the comments. I was impressed by the practicality of Lilian Garcia. The singer and ring announcer for WWE gave a qualified voice to the celebrity judging panel. She was easy with the praise and matter of fact in her opinions. She and Sam agreed on nearly every girl in the competition. Great minds.
Ben Lyons from E! was hilarious. I think entertainer Donnie Klang voted yes on 90% of the ladies! I think 99% of them would vote yes on him. You should’ve seen how they swarmed him after the competition. Good on ya, Donnie!
Denise brought shrills of joy from the group of competitors when she said they’d be taking 30 girls to Flight Crew training camp. Name after name, she announced the group, accompanied by screams and tears. I was watching one girl crying so much that when her name was announced she could barely get out of her seat.
Compare that to the shock and dismay of the returning Flight Crew who didn’t make it this season. In the end, 15 of last year’s crew and 15 new faces were added to the Flight Crew. This year’s team is full of incredible dancers and they’re all absolutely stunning.
When I did an informal poll around the Jets locker room to ask what they wanted from the Flight Crew, I got one word … distracting. One player told me about how the Redskins cheerleaders were lined up as the Jets walked on the field in the 2006 preseason and they actually distracted the Jets. If you can get a Flight Crew that distracts the other team, they’re helping the Jets win.
This year’s group will be more than distracting. They’ll command your attention for every timeout and will add a great deal to the fan experience. I expect a louder Jets crowd because of them this year … I also expect an autographed copy of the Flight Crew calendar.
Randy Lange
Editor-in-Chief
NewYorkJets.com
May 9, 2009
After a day of dancing, cheerleading, competing and judging at Pacha NYC today, the New York Jets Flight Crew are inviting 30 young women to Flight Crew training camp this summer.
“I am very happy with the new squad,” said Denise Garvey, in her third year as director of the squad. “It was important to me for the Flight Crew to grow and develop as a stronger cheerleading squad right from the very beginning of the 2009 season and I believe we are doing just that. The look of the team has developed into a glamorous group of young women.”
2009 Flight Crew Team PhotoFifteen of the 30 finalists selected by Garvey and a celebrity panel of judges were on last year’s Flight Crew. All 30 selected following the very competitive final round will be participating in Crew appearances and activities from now until the start of the camp June 1.
Here are the 30 finalists who are on the 2009 New York Jets Flight Crew, listed alphabetically by first name:
“Today I was looking for attractive and talented entertainers — they must be fun to watch!” Garvey said. “I call the Meadowlands our ‘theater in the round’ and they need to be able to entertain on that stage. The audience is huge at 80,000 fans and so their presence must, in turn, also be huge.”
Assisting Garvey in the selection process were Jets safety Kerry Rhodes, singer Lilian Garcia, entertainer Donnie Klang, SNY Jets reporter Steve Overmyer, CBS Sports reporter Sam Ryan, and E! film critic Ben Lyons Overmyer will file a Radar entry on his day of judging the Flight Crew that will be on newyorkjets.com Sunday morning.
“I am looking forward to taking the Flight Crew to new heights in 2009,” Garvey said, “and it seems like we truly are ready for takeoff in year three.”
By Gary Glenn
Titans Online
May 7, 2009
*Photos: Titans Cheerleaders Final Audition
*Video: Titans Cheerleaders 2009 Auditions
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A packed house at the Wildhorse Saloon witnessed the formation of the 2009 Titans Cheerleading squad Thursday night.
The final auditions, presented by Sun Tan City, were the culmination of a process that began nearly two months ago. The evening began with 50 finalists and ended with 26 ladies making the 2009 squad.
“I am thrilled with the squad we have in place for the 2009 season,” said Stacie Kinder, director of cheerleaders for the Titans. “The judges had some tough decisions to make, but this was undoubtedly one of the most talented groups of finalists that we have ever had. It was a great night.”
A panel of celebrity judges that included former Titans receiver Kevin Dyson, Taj George, 2009 Survivor competitor and wife of Titans great, Eddie George and former Miss Tennessee USA Allison DeMarcus graded contestants on their appearance, physique, dance ability and fan applause.
Several Titans players, including safety Chris Hope, linebacker David Thornton, kicker Rob Bironas and cornerback Cary Williams – among others — came out in support of the event.
The cheerleaders will travel to Destin, Fla. later this month to shoot the team’s 2009 swimsuit calendar at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort.
2009 TENNESSEE TITANS CHEERLEADERS
Ally
Alyson
Ashley A.
Ashley S.
Brianne
Brooke
Chocez
Clair
Danielle
Heather
Jena
Jessi
Jocey
Jordin
Julia
Keesha
Kristin
Lindsey
Melanie
Natalie
Shannon
Shauna
Stefanie
Tanzye
Tonya
Valerie
Eric Allen
Senior Managing Editor
NewYorkJets.com
May 8, 2009
To get a little assistance in selecting the 2009 Flight Crew, the Jets will have a number of celebrity judges on hand at the final round Saturday at Pacha NYC. Both Lilian Garcia, a singer and WWE diva/ring announcer, and Donnie Klang, an enertainer who gained notoriety on MTV’s “Making the Band,” are looking forward to helping Crew director Denise Garvey pick this year’s squad.
“I also was a cheerleader in school growing up in South Carolina, so I have some personal identification to it,” Garcia told newyorkjets.com this week. “It’s going to be very exciting to see these girls and I know how I felt when I was trying out and wanted to be a part of a cheerleading squad so bad, so I know how these girls feel and it’s just going to be very exciting to see what they bring to the table.”
The lovely Garcia, who has sung the National Anthem at a number of Jets games and has become a good friend of the organization, watched the Crew’s initial takeoff the past two years.
“They are the one thing that always attracts my attention. I love to watch them because it has a personal connection with me,” she said. “I just think it is great what they do, their routines, and I see they’re having so much fun. Again, that’s what really attracts a person watching, when you see that there is so much enjoyment.”
As the longest running diva in the WWE, Garcia will celebrate her 10th year with the famous wrestling company on Aug. 23 (a working date as Summer Slam will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles). Having made thousands of appearances on the big stage, Garcia has sound advice for the 51 Crew finalists.
“Now dancing is so incorporated into cheerleading, but it’s important to have more than a certain look —I think its confidence,” she said. “Somebody can be absolutely beautiful, but if they don’t have any confidence, then they’re not going to shine. And yet you may have somebody else who is cute but she has a lot of confidence, then she is just going to shine through big-time. To me confidence is the most important thing.”
The 24-year-old Klang, whose first album, “Just Like a Rolling Stone,” is still being sold at music stores, learned under the tutelage of entertainment mogul Sean Combs (a.k.a. P. Diddy).
“For me, being on ‘Making the Band,’ we had to go trough the whole audition process and I saw a lot of people get nervous. They didn’t show their true skills and for that they got cut,” Klang says. “Put everything you have out on the line and don’t go home feeling like you left anything behind that day or you didn’t show the true you.”
Klang, who also sang the National Anthem at a Jets game last season, attended Hofstra and has been a Green & White follower for a long time.
“I grew up in Brooklyn, moved out to Long Island, and having the Jets training camp right there on the Hofrstra campus was awesome,” he said.
While both Klang and Garcia will help the Flight Crew out Saturday, they are also excited about the Jets and their recent addition of quarterback Mark Sanchez.
“That’s incredible,” Klang said. “I was busy the day of the draft, but when I found out about it, I really think this season is going to look good.”
“It’s really great, it’s very exciting. We’ll see what he can do,” said Garcia, who spent a portion of her childhood in Spain and whose first singing album was titled “Quiero Vivir (I Wanna Live).” “Of course there is a personal touch because he is Latino and I’m from Spain. I’m very proud to have him on the team and we’ll see what happens. I’m excited.”
Heads up! There are new photos from this year’s Ben-Gals finals on the Cincinnati Bengals website. Click here to go there now.
I can’t even imagine how many crunches it takes to achieve this…
Click here to view new photos on AZCardinals.com
(Unless I’m much mistaken, this is Courtney, a former Atlanta Falcons Cheerleader.)
Click here to view photographer Daniel Berman’s photos from Sunday’s Seattle Sea Gals final audition.
