You heard it here first football fans, the Arizona Cardinals Cheerleaders are putting out a brand new 2007-08 Season Calendar. And this week we have a new member of the Cards Alumni group here to tell you all about the upcoming calendar and the hard work that goes into it. Please welcome Katie.
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Hello Cards fans, my name is Katie and I am a retired 10 year veteran for the Arizona Cardinals Cheerleaders. I just recentlyretired this past year and I guess you can say that I have dedicated a decade of my life to the organization and I would not change that for the world. I have so much to be proud of and so many wonderful and amazing experiences to look back on. As you know this is the second season that the Arizona Cardinals are in their new stadium and I am so thankful that I go to experience performing there in my final year on the squad. It truly was an awesome way to end my career with the Cardinals and it’s nice to finally have a place to call home.
But now that the hype around the new stadium has died down a bit, the AZ Cheerleaders have something else to be pumped about. The new squad, which is full of amazingly talented & beautiful girls, is kicking off the 2007 season with a swimsuit calendar after a 3 year hiatus Most of the NFL teams produce a swimsuit calendar annually, but for the Arizona Cardinals Cheerleaders this will only be the 5th time ever!
Shooting a new swimsuit calendar must have been so exciting for the team this year. I have been fortunate enough to have been featured in all four previous swimsuit calendars the Arizona Cardinals Cheerleaders have produced and was even selected to have my picture featured in Tony Gonzalez’s (that’s right, KC Chiefs) special NFL addition magazine called Player. That was a trip for sure, but I felt so honored to have been selected. When I heard that th girls we’re doing a swimsuit calendar after all of these years I do have to admit I was kind of jealous, but so excited for the new team. “Dang, I shouldn’t have retired!” Just kidding!! I started thinking about t though and I remembered how exciting and beautiful the calendars always looked and also remembered how nerve racking the whole experience can be.
In the end though, all of the blood, sweat and tears was well worth it. Ok, so there was no blood, but I do have to say making a calendar is hard work and not as easy as it may appear to be. There is so much more to it than just standing there in your bikini looking pretty. You have to really get into the photo shoot and act like a model, which is quite hard since most of our expertise is in dance!! You have to smile and be serious (which I would always laugh trying to do) ou have to turn this way and that way, get your hair wet, and make it messy. I am telling you, you will always think differently about swimsuit calendars after you read this article.
One of the most time consuming and difficult parts in making a swimsuit calendar was picking out the perfect swimsuit. I know it sounds silly, but you really want it to be perfect and fit your physique just right since our picture is going to be seen not only by your peers, but by thousands of fans as well. I remember spending countless hours in the swimsuit store trying on suit after suit. It was not ean easy task trying to find “The One.” We would have to try on undreds of suits, and then model them for our coach and everyone else who was there! I am a very modest person, so let me tell you, that was sooo embarrassing for me. I am not one to prance around in a store with an itty bitty bikini on. I felt like we were in a swimsuit fashion show. Our coach would make a final decision on the bikini we had to wear for our shoot and send us on our merry way.
Most of us had to shoot very early in the morning over a span of about 4 to 5 days. That is a lot of girls to shoot in such a short amount of time, but that is how it works and if we had to rearrange our schedules to make our photo shoot we had to do it. That is if you wanted the opportunity to be in the calendar. We would arrive early to the shoot and get our hair and make-up done. It was a pretty quick process getting ready because each girl was limited to a certain amount of time and the photographer had to have certain lighting with the girls based on their swimsuits, backdrops, etc……… It was really hard to look awake that early in the morning but somehow the make-up crew would hide our tired eyes and make us look beautiful. I am telling you shooting a calendar is very time consuming and a lot of hard work, both mentally and physically.
As a team, we all got to shoot pictures throughout Arizona. We were each assigned to different resorts and locations. One of my photo shoots that I remember the most was the 2004 calendar. I got to shoot my pictures at the Sanctuary Resort and I had a beautiful blue meshed color suit. I was so thrilled to be taking my pics there because the resort is gorgeous. I recall not having much notice that year for the calendar. We were literally at practice one night and our coach Molly announced to us that we would be shooting a swimsuit calendar the very next week. Well as you can imagine we were all pretty stressed about that because we all wanted to look perfect of course, so immediately our focus to look good was on. But we all maintain a healthy diet when the season starts and we practice so much and so hard in the heat, that we all were in pretty good shape already.
I have four calendars to look back on and be proud of. It is the most rewarding feeling to stand there in a little bikini and not only feel confident but glamorous as well. The photographers were always so fun to work with and they always went out of their way to make us feel extra comfortable with what we were doing and assured us that we looked GREAT! When I shot my pics at the Sanctuary Resort, I recall that out of the whol big property, I was asked to squeeze int this little flowing creek and hang my head upside down. “Upside down??” I know it sound silly but it actually turned out pretty cool and was actually my favorite picture out of the four calendars I have ever done. I guess it wasn’t such a silly idea after all.
It was always nice to have our coach nearby to ask advie if a pose looked good or not, or if our hair and mak-up was still intact. Does this pose make me look skinny or fat? THose types of questions are what goes through your head during something like this, so we really relied on her to give us the thumbs up. She always gave us positive feedback and made us feel so good about ourselves. That is something we all need to hear and I know myself, I was so thankful she was there to help me through it. I know the team this year was very fortunate to have the chance to travel to Mexico and shoot the calendar. How amazing is that? I am sure they all looked absolutely beautiful.
We are all very excited to see the new calendar this year, especially after all this time. I’m sure the anticipation of seeing the calendar is setting in right now for the team!!! I am so very sad that I am retired but so thankful to have had these wonderful memories that I could share with all of you and look back on. It took me back to that time and really made me appreciate it all over again. The Cardinals organization has been wonderful to me throughout the past ten years.
So to the new ladies of 2007-2008, good luck to you and to your new calendar, I know it will be a huge success. I know you will represent for all of us and make the alumni cheerleaders so very proud. I know I will be one of the first fans to purchase one. Good luck this year and I’ll be seeing you on the sidelines. And to the fans……don’t forget the new calendar!! lol
Love Always,
Katie