The Bills' 2009 season drawing to a close brings up a lot of positives as well as negatives for the fans. Some of the positives are things like only one more week of poor football being played and an opportunity for players to get healthy and the team to get re-tooled for the 2010 season. There's also all the memories that were created, some bad and many good. Among the good were the Edge Away Game Parties held at the Aud Sports Bar and Grill in Depew, which featured great food, drink and wing specials, lots of prizes, and visits from a pair of Buffalo's beautiful Jills cheerleaders.
Among the negatives though, is the fact that some of these same Buffalo Jills might not return next season and next week's home finale is the last chance to see some of them. There are 3 of the 37, at least, who have already decided they won't be returning in 2010 and while we can hope they each reconsider (hint, hint), we know many move on whether we like it or not and all we can do is wish them well. There's also the chance that they could return in the future and that brings us to the pair of Jills who were at the Aud for the final Edge Away Game Party of the season. Kaitlin and Michelle are Jills dancers who each spent time with the squad in 2007 but not in 2008. Kaitlin is known as a former Ambassador who made the move to the dance squad this year while Michelle gets a lot of notice every week with her tumbling abilities on display during many routines and performances. They both, thankfully, have plans to be back in 2010 at the present time.
While the game itself may not be the most fantastic thing to watch next week, the Jills always put on great performances no matter how the Bills are doing. Members of the Ambassador Squad can be found at the 97Rock and 103.3 The Edge Tailgate parties prior to the game starting at about 10am posing for photos and selling some of their smoking hot Swimsuit Calendars. You can also catch a couple of them inside the Fieldhouse shortly after it opens meeting the fans and even playing a bit of Family Feud as well. But don't wait until the last minute to get inside the stadium as the Jills put on a fantastic pregame performance before the players come out on the field for the game. With captains Omarlla, Eileen, and Christina, the Jills lines will be performing all game long in addition to a big performance between the 3rd and 4th quarters. Why am I telling you, the loyal readers, all this? This may be the last time you'll see some of these girls perform and I know, I for one, will be saddened by this. While the brand of football displayed by the Bills most of the season has been unwatchable, the Jills performances by the dancers as well as the Ambassadors has more than made up for that.
This week, we take a look at one of the Jills' co-captains on the squad in 3rd year vet Jill. Yep, that's right. Jill the Jill....she's heard that joke on an almost daily basis the past 2 1/2 years but still takes it in stride. Found on gamedays as Eileen's co-captain between Joya and Angelina, Jill's bright smile is only a part of what sets her apart from most young women her age. She has her goofy side and even, on occasion, makes goofy faces for the camera. She mostly comes across as pretty mature for her age and is pretty down to Earth with some strong moral values. She has 13 years of dance training under her belt, including 7 years in competition and even spent another 2 years near the Nation's Capital studying dance at George Mason University. You can read more about Jill at http://buffalojills.net/roster/jill.php
This time of year is a time for giving and unfortunately, instead of giving their fans a happy holiday season, the Bills, with some help from some questionable officiating calls, gave away a game to the hated New England Patriots for a 13th straight time. Thankfully, this blog isn't about the game itself or else it wouldn't be very family friendly when describing the game, the officiating, and the fans who chose to disrupt the Bills offense with excessive noise during critical offensive plays that resulted in false starts.
Instead, this blog is about the beautiful ladies on the sidelines, who never have fans pulling out their hair or frustrated. Well, there might be some frustration for guys when they fall in love with these young ladies but that can't be helped. Prior to the game, members of the Ambassador Squad were found at the 97Rock and 103.3 The Edge Tailgate parties as well as inside the Fieldhouse in their Santa's helper outfits posing for pictures and signing autographs for the fans. Prior to kickoff, 3rd year vet co-captain (and next week's Buffalo Pro Cheer Jill of The Week) Jill delivered the game ball before the entire squad performed to some Christmas music. They even did a big performance in the tunnel endzone to Christmas music as well still wearing their Santa hats with their winter gear. http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a375/buffalojills2005/2009/Pats%20game/
Coming up next, 103.3 The Edge is holding its final Away Game Party of the season on Sunday, December 27 as the Bills visit Atlanta to face off against the Falcons. The Aud Sports Bar and Grill in Depew is the place to be whether you haven't made it there this season or have been there before. This week, in addition to the large prize table, wing and drink specials, buffet, and visits by the Buffalo Jills, they'll be giving away a 47 inch TV. You must be present to win this prize so if you've been there and entered before during the season, you'll forfeit your chance to win this TV if you don't show up.
The Jills take the field at the Ralph one final time this season as the Bills host Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. Gametime is currently set at 1pm for this matchup against former AFC East rivals. However, with the Colts possibly playing for a perfect season, there is a chance the game could be moved to a later start, news which would be announced no later than Monday, December 28th.
This week, we take a look at an early departure from the 2009 Buffalo Jills. Nicole P was in her 6th season on the squad and her 2nd as a full captain this season, heading up the line that Pro Bowler Christina has taken over in her absence. Her career on the Jills has a number of highlights, including her own trip to the Pro Bowl 2 years ago and the honor of the cover of the 2006-07 Buffalo Jills Swimsuit Calendar. She also appeared on "Que dice la gente," a Hispanic version of the Family Feud. It was a special edition of the show where the participants were all NFL Cheerleaders. As a Spanish teacher, she was an easy selection for the show. Even before joining the Jills, she was an accomplished young lady with a number of Outstanding Performance awards at National dance competitions like Showstoppers and Starpower. She even won an Outstanding Overall Achievement Award at a Showstoppers National Dance Competition. You can read more about Nicole at http://buffalojills.net/roster/nicoleP.php
Back at the end of July, 103.3 The Edge, 1 of the Jills' primary sponsors, gave some of their normal weekend DJs some time off and brought in members of the Buffalo Jills to DJ for most of the weekend. The Jills all did pretty well and a few were really outstanding. They'll be doing that again for a chunk of this weekend as well. Tune in from 7pm-midnight Friday, 10am-midnight Saturday, and 7am-10am Sunday (they do still have game duties) to WEDG-FM at 103.3 on your radio tuner or listen online at http://www.wedg.com/
Also, even with the current NFL season still going on, it's never too early to start thinking about joining the 2010-2011 Buffalo Jills. The Open Workshop (closed to the public) will be held at the Conference Center of Niagara Falls at 10am on Sunday, March 14th, 2010. The workshop is free for all interested young ladies who want to possibly tryout for the squad and gives everyone a chance to learn the requirements of being on the squad in more detail. The audition dance routine is taught at this workshop as well. First cuts will be Saturday, March 20th and will be open to the public like this past year's were. Get all the details as they become available at http://buffalojills.net/appearances/details.php?recordID=70
With a 4-8 record and little shot at the playoffs, one would think that Bills fans would lose interest in watching their team in a meaningless game against the also-struggling Kansas City Chiefs. However, many diehard Bills fans didn't care that their team would soon be out of it as many of them not only watched the game, but went to the Aud Sports Bar in Depew to see it after a snowstorm hit the area only a few days ago.
The reason for fans filling the Aud was more than just seeing the game alongside fellow Bills fans. All season long, the Aud Sports Bar has been the host of 103.3 The Edge's Away Game Parties. With drink and wing specials, a halftime buffet, and the largest prize table in the region, fans flocked to the Transit Road location for not only those reasons, but a chance to meet a pair of beautiful members of the Buffalo Jills. This week, fans watched a Bills win over the Chiefs in the company of 2 Jills rookies. Kelly is a dancer on Omarlla's line during home games who, along with a pair of her squadmates, put together an impromptu routine for the Tailgate Warriors show filmed back in August that, sadly, didn't get on the show. Courteney is a member of the Ambassador Squad who is probably as cheerful as anyone on the squad. You can meet her at the 97Rock or 103.3 The Edge Tailgate next week before the Bills host the hated New England Patriots.
Next up, the Jills will be cheering on the Bills against the Patriots* and there are still plenty of seats left for the game so Bills fans can help the Jills cheer on the team in an upset win. With the turmoil going on in the Pats' locker room of late, the timing could be perfect for the Bills to tally their first win against their divisional rival since the 2003 Opener.
The Aud Sports Bar will be the place to be on Dec 27th, however, as not only a pair of Jills will be in attendance, but they'll be drawing for a new 47" television set. If you've entered at any time this year, you still need to be there to claim your prize.
When winter hits and football season starts winding down, the NLL is getting set to start another exciting season of indoor lacrosse. In Buffalo, where the Bills and Sabres have frustrated the fans of late, the Buffalo Bandits lacrosse team has done exactly the opposite, bringing home the NLL Championship 2 seasons ago. After a 2nd rd exit from the playoffs in 2009 however, the Bandits retooled a little and are making an attempt to reclaim the Champions Cup for Buffalo. But before they can do that, the team needs to practice and train and part of that is an Open Practice they put on each December for their loyal fans.
The Bandits team isn't all that changed as the Bandettes dance team went through some changes as well. A number of well-known faces have moved on in coach Erin J, Danielle, Karla, Sarah, Denise, and Maggie. Jaclyn takes over running the squad in 2010 with Erin Y moving up from dancer to head choreographer/asst coach. With the departures, 6 new faces take their places to join the established vets. 2 of these new faces aren't exactly new however as 2006-08 alumnus Beth returns to the squad after taking last year off due to scheduling conflicts. She's even getting an added role in her return, that of Justina's co-captain while Melissa moves over to Meghan's line to take the co-captain spot of the departed Danielle. The other familiar face spent the fall of 2008 at Ralph Wilson Stadium as a member of the Buffalo Jills. Lonna joins fellow rookies Lauren B, Chelsea, Stephanie, and Ashley V to round out the 14-girl squad intent on cheering on the Bandits to a 5th league title in 2010.
For their part of the Open Practice, the Bandettes put on a pair of dance performances, the 1st run giving a break to the players during practice and the 2nd at the end of practice, giving the players a little bit of time to get ready for a post-practice autograph session in the Arena's concourse. After the 2nd performance, the Bandettes went around the concourse to pose for photos and sign autographs while the players took some more time to get ready.
Coming up next for the Bandettes is the Bandits Home Opener January 16 at 7:30 in HSBC Arena. The Bandits host their Thruway rivals, the Rochester Knighthawks, in the 2nd game of their season series after a road trip to Rochester's Blue Cross Arena on January 9th.
This week, we continue with our look at some of the lovely rookie Jills Ambassadors on the squad with the beautiful Kristen. This soft-spoken young lady is working on her degree in biology and hoping to pursue a career as a physician’s assistant. Describing herself, she says she's happy, upbeat, caring and loving but her strongest quality is her postive attitude. Not an easy thing to do all the time when cheering for the Bills but she pulls it off as well as anyone on the squad and it's one of the things her squadmates love about her. Jessica and Valerie are the only other two that smile quite as much as Kristen does and, like with her more experienced squadmates, her smiling is infectious. In fact, since tryouts at the Town Ballroom in April, I can't recall seeing her without a smile on that pretty face, even in that muddy mess of a "tailgate party" in Toronto last week. She even went so far as to put a smiley face on her Jills bio...lol. But like so many of her squadmates, she loves cheerleading and the Bills and hopes the current playoff drought can end sooner rather than later. She thinks Buffalo fans are awesome and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking the feeling is mutual.
When she's not cheering or taking classes, she enjoys the beach with her boyfriend (sorry, guys), whether it be swimming, jet-skiing, or just plain relaxing. She enjoys listening to most forms of music and funny movies and actually wishes she could change those pretty brown eyes of hers to blue. Personally, I don't think she should change a thing.
It's that time of year again, when NFL Cheerleaders select their Pro Bowl representatives, this year sending their representatives to Miami for the January 31st AFC-NFC All-Star game. This year's selection should be no surprise to anyone as it's 4th year vet and captain Christina. She started off her career as a Jill as the only rookie member of the Events Dance Team and also won the 2006 Rookie of The Year. In 2008, she was named a co-captain for Omarlla's line and moved over to Nicole's line this season. However, after Nicole resigned suddenly, Christina took over handling the captain duties on her own and doing a great job with it, obviously. This won't be Christina's 1st trip to Miami at the end of January. Three years ago, the Super Bowl was held there just like this year and a group of NFL Cheer squads sent a half-dozen girls each to compete in a Beauties on The Beach competition that the Jills, including Christina, did pretty well in.
Congratulations to Christina on a well-deserved honor!
The NFL's cameras were on hand in Toronto last week and snapped a few pics of the Jills dancers from the Budweiser "Tailgate Party" as well as individual shots of Stephanie B, Katie, and Vincenza along with a couple more group shots.
Last year, the Bills started an 8-game series of games in which they held some of their home games not at home in Ralph Wilson Stadium, but in the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario. The reasoning for the Bills In Toronto Series is to lure some big money corporations to buy up luxury boxes in Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Bills don't generally have a problem selling out games, even in the midst of a now 10-season playoff absence. Western NYers are well-known for their love of their sports teams. The Bills went 6 years leading the league in attendance during their Super Bowl run. The Buffalo Sabres have high attendance at all of their games and the Buffalo Bandits are annually among the leaders in attendance in the NLL. The only problem is the lack of big money corporations to buy luxury boxes and other premium seating. That's the hope of the Bills in Toronto series...to help draw the big money corporations down to Orchard Park, so that the Bills can afford to compete with the large market teams of the NFL when it comes to signing bonuses and expenditures not covered by the league's salary cap.
The whole idea is to give those big money people a taste of what the Bills have to offer and in all honesty, the Rogers Centre is ill-suited for that. People are paying premium prices for poor seating where the sightlines aren't suited for the NFL. In Ralph Wilson Stadium, there are great sightlines all over the stadium. There's also the lack of tailgating, something that Buffalo is known for. Buffalo, Green Bay, and Kansas City are always the top 3 NFL cities in regards to their tailgating. True tailgating has nothing to do with excessive alcohol consumption but everything to do with the feeling of community in the parking lots around the stadium as fans grill up their dinners and share with fellow tailgaters. Toronto doesn't allow tailgating, which detracts from the gameday experience. The Rogers Centre setup even affects the cheerleaders as well and not in a positive way. As anyone who's watched NFL cheerleaders a lot knows, there are 8 spots around the sidelines that each squad of cheerleaders perform during the game. Besides being stationed at each 10-yard line during the game, each squad also spends some time dancing in the end zone areas and the organizers at the Rogers Centre made one mistake when it comes to seating that prevented the Jills from dancing in the scoreboard endzone area by placing bleachers only a few yards away from the endzone. That deprived the fans in that endzone of seeing the Jills up close and they couldn't even look up behind them on the scoreboard and see them there because of the fact that it's placed above but in front of the endzone seating. In this blogger's opinion, a better way to sell these luxury boxes is a lot easier than moving games and upsetting the loyal fan base. Simply set aside a few luxury boxes that aren't selling for the purpose of giving these large corporations a taste of a real gameday experience. The luxury boxes are contracted for a period of a few years as it is. If there are some that aren't selling for a few years, sell them for individual games. Maybe those corporate types would be more inclined to buy luxury boxes if they saw what a real gameday experience was about...because they certainly aren't seeing it in the Rogers Centre atmosphere. Hopefully though, this Toronto series can help draw Canadian corporations to Buffalo. If nothing else, the wealthy people in Toronto buying up these tickets are hearing what a great experience a real Bills home game is from the fans who either already make the drive down to the Ralph on a regular basis or the diehards that make the trip up to Toronto.
Now that I'm done with that part, the game itself was nothing that Bills fans want to remember, and the poor sightlines at the Rogers Centre may have almost been a blessing for the Bills fans that made the trek to Toronto to see their team play in a neutral site alongside Jets fans as well as fans of the NFL in general. Before the game however, fans got a chance to meet one of the Bills all-time greats when HOF RB Thurman Thomas put in an appearance at the Budweiser Tailgate Party and, as well as signing autographs and posing for pictures, gave one lucky fan a ticket to the game....to sit with Thurman himself.
There was someone else at that Budweiser tailgate party that fans were happy to see as well, though. Keisha, Alyssa, Kristen, and Lindsay of the Buffalo Jills Ambassador Squad spent a few hours mingling with the fans as well as posing for pictures and signing autographs. They even sold a number of their smoking hot Swimsuit Calendar as well which features 41 beautiful ladies in some very sexy swimwear. To add to that, Omarlla, Eileen, Christina, Valerie, Jessica, and Lynn put in an appearance for photos and autographs and put on a performance on stage, showing off not only their beauty, but their dance moves for the hundreds of fans in attendance. When gametime came, the lovely Amanda delivered the game ball before joining with Alyssa to accompany Billy Buffalo on promotional visits around the stadium. Meanwhile, Omarlla, Eileen, and Christina led their squads around the stadium and put on a pair of big performances in the non-scoreboard endzone, where they had room to perform.
Coming up next for the Jills, some of the squad will be at Snowpark Niagara in Niagara Falls, NY Saturday from 10-1 in an event to benefit the Breast Cancer Association. Don't forget to tune into 103.3 The Edge Wednesday morning from 7:30-8:30 to talk to Bull and one of the Jills for an hour-long interview. The Bills are back on the road in Kansas City on Dec 13th as they try to improve on their 4-8 record and the best place to watch the game is the Aud Sports Bar in Depew. Wing and drink specials, a halftime buffet, and the largest prize table in Western NY are only a part of the draw as the event features a pair of the beautiful Buffalo Jills in attendance.
Despite what some of her friends have thought this season, our current Jill of The Week isn't a dancer, but a rookie member of the Ambassador Squad. From a little bit of a distance, some people have thought she was out there dancing on the sidelines when it was actually 4th year vet Valerie. The confusion has helped make the two of them pretty good friends, though. Lindsay is already an accomplished young lady with her BS in Early Childhood and Childhood Education and is also currently pursuing a master's in Literacy. If that's not enough, she's also a speed reader...a talent that will help this future teacher in grading papers quickly so she can go back to watching a movie with her longtime boyfriend (sorry guys). That's probably a big part of why she's not quite as much of a partier as most girls her age...she already landed her guy. With 10 years of dancing and 4 years of cheerleading behind her, you would think she'd have gone for the dance squad but the dance squad requires a heftier time commitment and by choosing to become an Ambassador this year instead, she's working to correct her worst habit, which is over-committing herself and then stressing out about it. With her focus right now on getting her master's degree, she figured she wouldn't overload herself for a change. With plans of getting her degree this upcoming spring, maybe we'll see her decide to dance next season? We can have fans do a little bit of a double take if she and Valerie dance on the same line...LOL. Check out her 97Rock Photo album at http://97rock.com/Article.asp?id=1556008&spid=21992
