They are key component to the hockey-game experience and Honda Center entertainment.
Marcia C. Smith
Columnist
The Orange County Register
ANAHEIM– The Ducks have their own version official cheerleaders – or chill leaders – and they don’t carry much in the way of pom-poms or even the weather-appropriate parkas.
Much like the cheer and dance teams of other professional sports teams, you can probably guess that the Ducks’ Power Players are young women, most in their early 20s, who are pleasantly perky, tastefully coiffed, minimally clothed, thin but healthy and, OK, hot enough to melt the ice.
Perhaps merely mentioning the attractive, man-catching qualities of the Power Players puts me in a faceoff with an ardent feminist. But their beauty – as well as their ability to ice skate, be kind to strangers and charm crowds – is part of how they landed this $13-an-hour seasonal job. (They get free parking too.)
Don’t hate them because their easy on the eyes in a sport in which the players have crooked noses, missing teeth and a scar where a left eyebrow use to be.
The Power Players have become part of the hockey-game experience, arena entertainment and the Ducks extended family. They have their own uniforms, their own dressing room (which they share with Wild Wing and the National Anthem singer), their own fans and fan mail, and their own page on the Ducks Web site.
“We’re part of the team,” said Lindsey, 22, a fifth-grade teacher in Orange County. “Probably the biggest misconception about us is that a lot of people think being a Power Player is our only job.”
Being a Power Player is a part-time job, whose shifts average about five hours every night the Ducks play a home game at the Honda Center. Ten “girls” – that’s their preferred label over the more workplace-neutral “ladies,” “women,” “females” or “Xena: Warrior Princesses” – work each game, with six helping maintain the ice and four roaming the bowl to interact with fans for in-game trivia contests and corporate promotions that are seen on the arena’s Diamond Vision scoreboard television.
The best skaters of each night’s crew are the ones fans see skate onto the ice during each timeout. While players are gliding back to the their benches, the Power Players stream from the Zamboni’s tunnel and scatter across the rink. One girl pushes an orange cart and five hold the shovels they’ll use to sweep and scoop up the ice that piles up around the goals, along the red lines and in front of the benches.
“We’ve got 90 seconds to get on and off the ice,” said Lindsey, in her third season with the 14-member squad. “I feel comfortable on skates because I grew up figure skating. But the first time I was out there, I was nervous in front of 15,000 people and worried that I would fall or drop the shovel or something.”
This is basically house/igloo cleaning, while wearing snug, black, low-cut halter tops with half-sleeves, thin black pants glittered by rhinestones and their own hockey skates. Even though they’re shoveling, they don’t get gloves.
But it’s not like they’re digging ditches, so nobody complains about sore backs from heavy lifting or callused palm. And not one of them feels like a sex kitten on skates.
“We’re all hockey fans, so it’s fun work, not labor, even though are uniforms are kind of, uh, form fitting,” said Jenn, 22, an Orange County physical therapist who pursuing a master’s degree in her field. “I played hockey for 11 years and four years in college (St. Mary’s University of Minnesota) and sometimes, I just want to get out there on the ice, grab a stick and try to score a goal.”
Jenn had no problem with last summer’s tryout at Anaheim ICE. About 30 turned out to compete for 14 spots to be ice candy. There was an application, an interview and a skating test in which judges rated each prospect on speed, balance, starting and stopping and on-ice personality.
“We couldn’t have them get on the ice if they looked like Bambi in tryouts,” said Sarah Montecinos, the Ducks’ entertainment coordinator who sets the Power Players schedule for games and community appearances. “All the girls can skate, but we put the best skaters on the ice.”
Though the Power Players aren’t using this gig to launch careers into acting, modeling or becoming a Laker or Charger Girl, they get more than navel exposure during games. The arena’s in-house TV cameras go to shots of the Power Players cheering and clapping after the Ducks’ goals or big plays. They also get some face time when, during timeouts and intermissions, they ask fans trivia questions to win prizes.
“Some fans know us by name,” said Lindsey. “They’re really sweet. We talk but we never get personal. It’s all professional.”
The Power Players have non-fraternization clauses in their contracts, limiting their personal interaction with Ducks players. They also use only their first names and give limited details about their off-ice lives for privacy reasons. For example, Lindsey can say she’s a schoolteacher and that she lives on Earth.
There’s more to these girls than their manicured outsides. They’ve got insides and non-hockey goals that aren’t all about rainbows and ponies. Nearly all the Power Players have a bachelor’s degree.
Alex wants a Ph.D. in art history and a career as a museum curator. Treana aspires to go into sports medicine. Tara wants to become a broadcast journalist. Amanda, a former figure skater, works as a phlebotomy technician, which means she draws blood with needles not high sticks. Laura has a master’s in history. Daniella, who is studying psychology, loves watching fights in hockey and wants to be a marriage counselor.
“This is one of the best jobs you can have if you’re a hockey fan,” said first-season Power Player Jenn, who holds a degree in biology. “I get to watch the game up close.”
Standing in the Zamboni tunnel awaiting the next timeout during the Ducks game last week against Vancouver, the Power Players embraced themselves and huddled close to keep themselves warm before their next shift.Then the door swung open and out the Power Players skated, legs gliding, shovels swinging and smiles frozen.
Back in December, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Show Group toured with the USO in Korea. One fan in the audience took a few photos during the DCC visit. View the pictures RIGHT HERE
Calgary Stampeders: A group of 70 women were high-stepping, twirling and whirling at Cardel Place on Sunday, March 15 for the 2009 Calgary Stampeders Outriders Dance and Cheer Team auditions.
“The 2009 Outrider auditions were a huge success,” said Outriders team manager Kelli Labonte. “I am very pleased with all the talented and energetic ladies that attended this year. I am looking forward to the 2009 Outrider Dance/Cheer Team performing at all Stampeder home games throughout the season and hosting the 2009 Grey Cup here in Calgary. Thank you to all of the ladies who made it out on Sunday.”
Approximately 40 of the hopefuls will be called back for an interview as the process of assembling the 2009 Outriders squad continues.
The judging panel on audition day included Outrider alumni, Blake Burnette of Devitt and Forand Contracting, Country 105 radio’s Dan Carson and Stampeders players Mike Labinjo, Fabio Filice, Sandro DeAngelis and Jeff Pilon.
MVC in Iraq Journal: Entry No. 1
3/25/2009 | By Lissa, 2-Year Veteran
Several Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders were recently in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East to visit military personnel. Below is the first of several entries that recaps their trip. Check back with vikings.com over the next several days for more from the trip.
JOURNAL ENTRY DAY ONE—March 1, 2009
Gina, Jessie, Amanda, Melissa, Kelly and I are headed to Iraq via Kuwait to visit the soldiers stationed in the Middle East. We met our tour director Carmen from Pro Sports MVP at the Minneapolis-St Paul airport. She is from Denver and told us this will be her 14th tour into Iraq or Afghanistan.
The girls and I held hands and “circled up” much like we do before games. We prayed and ask the Lord to keep us safe in travels and also keep our loved ones safe back home. I keep reminding myself that no one has ever been hurt on an entertainment tour. .
Usually I fall asleep on flights as soon as they start the engines, but on this flight, my mind isn’t interested in rest. I can’t believe I’m going to see Iraq. My whole life, I’ve only known it as a war zone or place of political unrest. I keep thinking that this was probably my grandpa, grandma and great grandma’s impression of Germany… a place I wouldn’t think twice to visit today.
We’re landing in Amsterdam at 6 am. We have a four hour layover before we get on a five-six hour flight to Kuwait.
JOURNAL ENTRY DAY TWO—Monday, March 2, 2009
After seventeen hours, we have finally arrived in Kuwait. It was a six hour flight from Amsterdam to here. We all slept the entire flight.
It’s 68 degrees here. We are waiting for our visas at Kuwait City International. The process takes about an hour.
11:00 pm Kuwait
We have arrived at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.. Kuwait City is nothing that I expected it to be. The roads are beautiful. We saw some really pretty housing on the forty minute drive to the base. We also saw a line of semi-trucks a couple miles long bring fuel into Iraq. One of our security guys told us that’s a nightly routine.
We are staying in a barrack that’s really similar to my dorm in college—a little nicer actually. We each have our own room here tonight and tomorrow until we head to Iraq. We saw a note one of the male soldier’s common sleeping bay that said “The Purple Cheerleaders have arrived. Go Vikings.”
JOURNAL ENTRY DAY THREE—Tuesday, March 03, 2009
CAMP ARIFJAN/ CAMP BUEHRING
Today we had our first official day of touring bases. We met some of the SeaBees before we left Arifjan. They are Navy construction guys who go in and set up camps, roadways, etc. We mostly use tents as much as possible so that American’s aren’t paying for structures or assets that we are no longer using after we leave an occupied zone.
At 11:15 we went to lunch at the DFAC (dining facility) and right after went to tour the medical facility on base. There were only two patients available to be visited. One was a young man named Ricky. The other was a guy named David. He was from LaCrosse, Wisconsin and had just had surgery on his leg.
We received a tour of the entire operations of the medical facility which also supports transportation, IT, morale, mail communication, etc. It was a great reminder of how many career paths there are in the military.
From there, we went to a Commander’s Briefing. A gentleman named John talked us through the situation in Kuwait. As he told us, the U.S.A. first developed a relationship with Kuwait in 1991 to help defend Kuwait’s sovereignty against Iraqi invasion. Since, Kuwait has funded an American presence in their country to help train their troops. Kuwait pays for a majority of the U.S. presence here including salaries of personnel, meals, water, camp installation and maintenance, etc. We were also told that Kuwait gave $500 million to the U.S. after hurricane community, but didn’t promote the fact to avoid backlash from the Arab community.
After the briefing, we went over to Camp Buehring. On the way, the girls were excited to see camels along the roads. I was laughing because one of our media photographers had to scrape sand and dust off her car much like we scrape ice back home. At Camp Buehring we signed photo cards and took pictures with their troops. We ate dinner at their DFAC. It was Sgt. Chris Wilson’s birthday, so we sang him Happy Birthday and helped him eat his cake.
East Texan’s vision created phenomenon known as the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
Often imitated, never duplicated: the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
The very first cheerleader and founder was Tyler’s Dee Brock.
“I’m so pleased with it,” Dee told KLTV 7 Sports Director Maya Golden. “I really happy that I was there and got to be part of it.”
From 1960 to 1975, Dee was the cheerleaders director. She grew up in Wright City and attended school in New London. Dee later went on to become a model in Dallas.
A friend working for the Cowboys introduced her to the team’s president Tex Schramm.
“He knew that Tex Schramm wanted to have cheerleaders for the Cowboys,” Dee explained. “His idea was that he would have models. First thing I did was, I said what every model always asks, ‘How much does this pay?’”
When Tex Schramm said there would be no salary, Dee informed him he would have a hard time convincing models to cheer.
“He said, ‘What do I do then? What could we do?” Dee shared. “I said, ‘if I were in charge, this is a start up team, first time you are going to have a team on the field, I would go for high school cheerleaders.”
So it came to be that the Cowboys first cheerleaders were high school students from the metroplex. They were girls and boys.
“I added boys to the mix so we could do more acrobatic kinds of things,” Dee said.
In the early days, fan reaction was very different from now.
“The fans like seeing the cheerleaders but they just didn’t want to cheer those types of cheers. They wanted to scream they way they wanted to.”
The team had to adjust to the cheerleaders presence as well.
“I met Mr. (Tom) Landry several times,” Dee said, “but frankly one of my jobs as a cheerleader director was to keep the cheerleaders and players separated.”
Dee took squads in 1971 to Super Bowl V in Miami and in 1972 to Super Bowl VI in New Orleans. It was after the Super Bowl appearances she decided change was needed.
The girls had to be 18 years old and she hired a dance choreographer. She also sketched the now trademark cheerleaders uniform on a legal pad.
“I designed a new set of costumes that were much more abbreviated. Maybe not quite as abbreviated as they are now,” she laughed.
When Dee wanted to integrate the squad, she was determined.
“At the time, the Cowboys management thought they just wanted to have white cheerleaders. But a lot of the fans were black and we had all these kids around, so I just kept after it. Eventually it happened.”
Those changes helped America fall in love with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
“The TV cameras could not keep their lenses off these girls so they just became hot stuff and they were getting all these invitations.”
That is when the Cowboys asked Dee to work fulltime as the cheerleader director. After 15 years, she decided to focus on her teaching career and work with PBS. But she says he always knew the Cowboys and their cheerleaders would be superstars.
“I really expected the Cowboys to succeed.”
Dee is also thankful for that meeting with Tex Schramm.
“Tex Schramm I thought was an outstanding person. He asked me then, ‘Could you do that? Could you organize such a group?’ and I said I could and so I did.”
Last Friday Dee Brock was honored for her work with the Cowboys at the Women in Tyler Day Luncheon.
Allow me to introduce you to the Dallas Dancers, the newest dance team to join Major League Soccer (MLS). The Dallas Dancers, under the direction of Tamara Jenkins) entertain the crows at all FC Dallas home games. You may remember Tamara as the Director of the NBA D-League Fort Worth FlyGirls Dance Team. The Flyers are no more, so FC Dallas was able to scoop her up for their dance team.
The team’s home opener was last week, although the team lost, Tamara was able to send us some great photos of the dancers in their first performance of the season. Rt-click on each photo and select “view image” to see the full size version.
The 2009 FC Dallas Dancers
Ashley greets a fan
FC Dallas Dancers with their Director Tamara Jenkins
Hailey, Asgid, Shannon, Megan, Ashley, Monica
The dancers in the locker room before the game
Megan and Asgid
Stef, Monica, Shannon, Hailey and Katherine
Yvette and Asgid
Yvette and Helen
The San Antonio Spurs Silver Dancers are featured this week. Go to SportsIllustrated.com to check it out.
The audition process is underway for the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders. They’ve been posting short (90 second) video profiles on some of the aspiring cheerleaders, and they’ve got 8 so far. Click here to watch them.
The San Antonio Spurs Silver Dancers are featured this week. Click here to check it out on SportsIllustrated.com
Auditions are well underway for the Jacksonville Jaguars Cheerleaders, known as the ROAR. There are a ton of photos from the first couple rounds of tryouts on Jacksonville.com. Go here to see them all.
