Sasha – Page 80 – Ultimate Cheerleaders

Ok, I know who she is. This is rookie Redskins Cheerleader Rachel K, but she’s also…somebody. Swear to pete, I’ve seen this face before. I just can’t think where. TV? Another team? A movie? maybe she resembles someone famous. She look familiar to any of you guys?

Bios, photos, and videos are online for this year’s edition of Football’s Fabulous Females. Click here to learn all about the ladies on the team!

Here we have Melissa, Michelle, Tracy, and Wendy. One is a dance teacher, one is a stay-at-hom mom, and the other two are students (one pursuing her masters in Nursing, the other pursuing a Ph D in Biomedical Engineering.)

The Raiderettes have always been one of the most, if not THE most diverse dance team in the league, not just in terms of physical appearance, but in every other way you can think of: background, education, religion, race, ethnicity, age, occupation, nationality, and on and on. It’s a beautiful thing.

Fox Sports (July 29, 2013): Training camp is here!

Every year at this time, we get the remote reports from camp. The news conferences with coaches. The injury updates. To hell with all that. (Actually, we got that covered, too.) But how many places give you updates on the real backbone of the NFL? To see how the NFL’s real spirit is dealing with the summer heat, [click here].

By: Craig Fouhy
ABC15
watch the video
07/29/2013

Like a lot of girls, Megan started dancing at a very young age, “I started when I was three, my Mom put me in a tiny, tiny tot class. I picked it back up when I was nine, and I loved it, so I danced competitively at a studio from age of nine, all the way through high school, and then I was on my college dance team.”

But after college, Megan took a break from dancing, got a job and spent years away from the very thing she loved the most. Years later, when she thought about trying out to be a Cardinals cheerleader, she needed a little extra inspiration. “I had an awesome friend just basically say, you have to do this, what do you have to lose? Just do it.”

A year ago, there she was, living her dream of trying out to be an NFL cheerleader. “I remember my number being called and uh, it was 118, and they called 118, I couldn’t believe it. I’m in finals. Then I knew, I was like, I want to make this team.”

And make it she did. “It’s just been such an amazing experience and to be at this age and still be able to do this, and to do it after you know, taking such a long break, it’s been really exciting.”

That long break Megan is talking about lasted seven years. “The war was going on at the time when I graduated college, so I wanted to take a job that was going to be meaningful, so I decided to join the Army.”

That’s right, Megan joined the Army. “When I first joined, I went to basic training and from there I went to officer candidate school, so I was commissioned a second Lieutenant at the end of April in 2007, and from there I became cable platoon leader and I deployed a month later from Henning to my unit to Iraq.”

Lieutenant Megan quickly found herself a long way from home. “I was deployed to Joint Base Belad which is about an hour North of Baghdad. At first, it was, it was scary you know, but um, it’s what I signed up to do.”

In Iraq, Megan didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about dance, she had bigger problems on her mind. “Our biggest threat to the base was, where we were at was incoming mortars and rockets.”

Her job in Iraq, critical to the success of the troops who were on the front lines, “My job was to make sure that the war fighters the soldiers that were actually out doing combat missions were able to communicate.”

Today, long after her sixteen months in Iraq, Megan cheers for the Cardinals on Sundays, but she’s still involved with the military. “I’m currently a reservist. I am a signal officer for a military police battalion that’s out of Scottsdale.”

And when everyone stands up to sing the National Anthem before kick-off, Megan can’t help but think about what the flag means to her. “When you see the flag, it means a lot, you know, because our country has given us so many freedoms and to be a part of fighting for that and maintaining that, it, it means a lot. So yes, it gives me goose bumps, I can’t help it.”

Photos! Video! Other stuff! Click here to check it out!

2013 LG veterans, trying to stay on the team.

So, while I’ve been waiting for the Lakers to post something (anything!) about this year’s audition, I did some googling to find out what the Laker Girls have been up to off the court. I found a few performance videos that were a real hoot. A couple of them are from Joe and Grace’s wedding. I have no clue who Joe and Grace are. I assume they’re Laker fans. The Laker Girls were excellent, although I very much doubt this is what they had in mind when they auditioned for the team. I’m sure those visions of purple and gold did not include dancing to the clean version of “F*** You” with a local Girl Scout troupe. For darn sure they didn’t include pumping up a lethargic crowd of partygoers in a Hilton ballroom in Long Beach. I don’t know how these Laker Girls do it. Personally, I’d be uncomfortably aware that me and mah girlz were the only thing standing between the audience and the buffet.

As a wise person once said, every gift comes with a price. Clearly this is one of those tradeoffs. You wanna ball with Kobe, you also gotta roll with gramma. And the Girl Scouts.

Bonus video:
Taylour Paige, star of “Hit the Floor” performing with the LGs two years ago, during the five minutes she was on the team. Depending on who you speak to, Taylour quit lakers because (a) she was over committed, or (b) she wanted to focus on her acting career. Either way, I’m not a fan. I’ve known too many girls who got cut from Lakers, to have much love for someone who made the team but quit because she was too busy with other things. As if Lisa Estrada didn’t explain to you in extreme detail exactly what kind of commitment you were signing up for.

If you ask me, Kyle is the best one on that show.
Sorry. That was kind of mean, wasn’t it?

But I digress.

The Chargers have posted updated bios and uniform shots for this year’s Charger Girls team. Click here to learn more about the ladies on the team!

Veterans Andrea, Ariel, and Angela

On a side note, it appears that we have another Charger Girls mystery on our hand. Back in the spring, the Chargers announced the names of the 28 young ladies selected to the team. Look at this list. Now look at the website. Now look at the list again.

2013 Charger Girls

Alexa
1 Alexa
2 Alexis Alexandra
3 Alexis Lauren
4 Andrea
5 Angela
6 Anjelica
7 Ariel
8 Clarisse
9 Courtney
10 Emily

11 Hope
12 Jennifer
13 Jessica
14 Kara
15 Karissa
16 Katelyn
17 Kayla
18 Kylie
19 Lindsay
20 Melissa
21 Meridith

22 Natalie
23 Nicole
24 Paige
25 Shelbi
26 Tawnie
27 Tina
28 Tinaiya

I understand people get cut. Happens on every team every year. And it’s not unheard of for a team to lose a dancer or two before the season starts. In this case, clearly Emily and Melissa disappeared early in the process. I have no clue why. Kidnapping? Illness/injury? Unexpected pregnancy? Unfortunate facebook shenangans? Or maybe just your regular old garden variety screw up. Whatever. But adding people to the team after the fact? That’s a new one.

We already discussed the Brianna thing. Presumably whatever happened to put her on the team happened about five seconds after the team was announced. I still don’t know what that’s about, but whatever. She’s a Charger Girl and that’s that.

Now we have another Mystery Charger Girl: Katie.

Here are the facts I know about Katie:
A. She was a Charger Girl during the 2012-13 NFL season
B. She was not included in the reveal for the 2013-14 team
C. She is currently on the team’s website as a member of this year’s team (using last year’s photo.)
D. She was a finalist for the Los Angeles Clippers Spirit a couple of weeks ago.

So I have to ask myself: What the heck?
If she IS on the team, why was she at Clippers auditions? But if she isn’t on the team, why is she (still) on the Chargers website?

How am I going to find out the truth? I can’t ask any of the current Charger Girls. And nobody else who knows is goign to tell me. I’m going to have to wait like five years to get to the bottom of this situation.

Drat.

Auditions are over and the Nuggets have selected 18 dancers to this year’s squad. Congratulations, ladies!
Click here to see who made the team, and click here for audition pics, and individividual photos of the finalists in this wicked-cute little yellow number. Werk!

Once again – SPOILER alert – for fans of “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team.” A few dancers who made it to DCC training camp but were later eliminated have been selected to the Mavs. If you don’t want to know, don’t look!

By Jay Betsill
Special to DFW.com
July 20, 2013

The week-long process of the 2013-14 Dallas Mavericks Dancers auditions began on Saturday morning with over 200 hopeful ladies on hand at the Hilton Anatole hotel and ended with 22 being named to the team. For the 40 ladies who survived Saturday’s multiple cuts to return on Sunday, they were met by the 14 returning veterans who had to re-audition for their spot on the team.

34 ladies — including all 14 vets — moved on to training camp which took place Monday-Thursday from 7-9 p.m. at Elevation Fitness in downtown Dallas.

[photos from training camp]

The ladies also had to schedule an interview with the Mavs personnel including fourth-year director Mallory Mills. The rookies are asked a variety of topics including time commitment and why they think they will be a good candidate to represent the Dallas Mavericks organization. Veterans were quizzed about leadership, the ways they can improve for next season and what they want to accomplish as a team.

Thursday evening was the last chance for the ladies to impress the judges. Most of them arrived at Elevation Fitness over an hour early for some final preparation on the three routines they had learned since Sunday. After several times through each routine in different groups, the judges left to deliberate. While the discussions lasted about 15 minutes, it felt like an eternity to the ladies who were awaiting word on if they would be performing in front of 20,000 fans at the Mavs home games at American Airlines Center.

Mills emerged with a stack of envelopes bearing each hopefuls name. She instructed each of them to leave the building prior to opening their envelope as the audition process was over. This also prevents someone from celebrating making the team in front of someone whose dream has just come to an end.

When the final envelope was passed out, 22 ladies received word that they were now a Mavs Dancer. The talent level was so high that they kept two more ladies than originally planned and two of the 14 returning veterans did not make this year’s team.

The final roster of the 2013-14 Dallas Mavericks Dancers is: Veterans – Chantel, Meghan, Lauren, Paige, Paula, Sequel, Taelor, Kirshae, Emily, Ashley, Casie and Bonnie. Rookies: Alexis, Amber, Amy, Crystal, Duyen , Kassandra, Kathryn, Kelly, Kennedy and Kristina.