This week's Bandette of The Week is no stranger to anyone who's paid any attention to the squad at all the last few years. In her 6th season on the squad is Melissa, who's in her 3rd season as a co-captain on Meghan's line. She's been dancing since she was 2 and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. And she shouldn't...when she's performing seems to be when she smiles the brightest. In addition to her experience and leadership on the squad, she's also contributed to NLL.com as a writer when squadmates have gotten named NLL Girl of The Week in the past. She earned a degree in communications 2 years ago originally looking into journalism but switched her focus to Integrated Marketing and currently works as a development specialist coordinating fundraisers and working with the non-profit organization that the foundation she works for supports. Her foundation's gain is the journalism industry's loss but hopefully we'll still see the occasional article from her on NLL.com with more NLL Girl of The Week write-ups. Last month, the NLL gave her the honor herself, an award a long time coming. Check that article out at http://www.nll.com/article.php?id=4402 You can read more about Melissa at http://www.bandits.com/profileB.asp?bandetteID=200907
This week, we take a look at one of our longer-tenured vets on the Buffalo Jills as our Jill of The Week. Stefanie just finished up her 4th season on the squad and is heading into her 5th after spending last season on Eileen's line between Caity and Joya. Stefanie's had a pretty eventful career so far with the Jills, starting with 2 trips to the Middle East visiting the troops in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In addition, she's been showing off her gymnastic abilities most of her career with the Jills but had to hold off on that and performing in general early last season when she was sidelined with a foot injury. And who says cheerleading isn't a sport? But considering how focused she gets on the game when on the sidelines at times, one has to wonder if Stefanie wants to throw on some shoulder pads sometimes. Thankfully for those of us who don't want her to risk getting hurt any worse, she enjoys her squadmates and all the fun that comes with being on the squad too much to try to become the first female player for the Buffalo Bills. You can read more about Stefanie in the webgroup's files section.
Obviously, everyone knows (or should know, anyway) about 2005-07 Buffalo Jills Alumnus Amanda P out in Hollywood working on the If I Can Dream series. She had her 1st audition this past Friday and you can keep up with what's happening in her journey to becoming an actress at http://www.hulu.com/if-i-can-dream/amanda She has frequent video log updates and the entire show has a new half hour episode available each Tuesday with recaps of what's gone on in the house the previous week.
We also have a pair of alumni who are each working on their singing with some local cover bands. First up is one we've covered in the past, 2005 alumnus Ashlee A. She spent a few years singing lead for the Studio 54 Dance Band and currently sings for About Face, a local band that specializes in weddings and the occasional restaurant/club in Western NY. Find out more at http://aboutfaceband.com/ Ashlee's not giving up her dreams of stardom, however. When she's not singing with About Face or working at the martial arts academy that she and her fiance own, she's working on getting on the television show Glee. Her audition videos are up at http://www.myspace.com/gleeauditions?link=3681221 where, besides watching the videos, fans can vote for her to help her out through 3pm ET on Thursday by giving her a gold star.
For another look at her singing, view this video of her singing 2 summers ago at Buffalo's Italian Festival. Ashlee singing at Class Act
With looks like Penelope Cruz and the voice of an angel, who wouldn't want to see and hear Ashlee on TV every week?
Last, but certainly not least, we come to 2003 Jills alumnus Aimee L, seen here with the afore-mentioned Studio 54 Dance Band, where I finally got the chance to meet her myself. Aimee is no stranger to the spotlight in the Buffalo area after spending several years singing as the lead in the Disco Duck Band. These days, she's moved on from disco and sings rock, funk, and country with Naughty Dawg when she's not helping out her friends in Studio 54, feeding her disco and dance fix. http://www.naughtydawgband.com/
Finally, a little reminder for the high school seniors and juniors out there in Western NY who haven't decided on a date to the prom. 97Rock's annual Take a Jill To The Prom Contest is almost done accepting entries and at noon on Friday the 30th, all the guys competing in the contest will be voted on by the public. The winner gets a limo ride to his prom complete with the companionship of one of the Buffalo Jills. This year, the lucky winner has a difficult task to perform after winning...choosing his date between Gabrielle, Ruby, Alyssa, Courteney, Lindsay, and Valerie. The contest can be found at http://www.97rock.com/Article.asp?id=1760222&spid=21992
The 2010 Buffalo Bandits regular season, which started off rocky to say the least, drew to a close in an exciting fashion Saturday night as the Bandits needed a win to make the playoffs. Thanks to outstanding performances by goaltender Mike Thompson and forwards John Tavares (3 G, 4 assists), Mike Accursi (3 G, 3 assists), Mark Steenhuis (1 G, 8 assists) and Roger Vyse (3G, 2 assists), the Bandits turned in a 13-10 win over Boston, a city whose hockey team is also engaged in some action against Buffalo's own Sabres. The Bandits helped give Buffalo a 2-0 weekend over Boston, except that next weekend, after the Sabres and Bruins have finished up their NHL playoff series, Bandits fans will be rooting for the Blazers to win their game against Orlando while the Bandits handle their own business in Toronto against the Rock, a team they are 2-1 against in 2010. A Blazers win, in addition to the Bandits win, will bring the Eastern Finals back to HSBC Arena the weekend of May 7-9. After that, the Minnesota Swarm have to make it through the West for the NLL Championship to be played in Buffalo, barring any unforseen circumstances such as what happened in 2007 when the Rochester Knighthawks had to travel to Arizona for the Championship Game they were supposed to host if not for a circus scheduled at Rochester's Blue Cross Arena.
The Buffalo Bandettes have turned in outstanding performances all season long and started off their gameday with a dance clinic for dancers 16 and up where girls got to learn from the pros in order to prepare for tryouts or just to have some fun. When the gates opened at 6, the Bandettes were on hand to hand out Bandits and Bandettes posters to the incoming fans while posing for the occasional photo as well before putting on some solid performances during the game including one at the first intermission including Bandits mascot Rax and one in the 3rd intermission in which the girls sported player jerseys and drew lots of cheers spelling out Bandits with their poms. Afterwards, it was on to Pearl Street for their last regular season postgame party of the 2010 season. All but 2 of the girls were on hand as they mingled with fans and enjoyed a well-deserved dinner after all their hard work was done for the day. Buffalo Jills director Stephanie M even stopped by after enjoying the game and talked with some of the girls and posed with Jaclyn and Erin Y for a great photo.
The one negative to the night was a bit of bad news that we learned as 5th year vet and captain Meghan, whose contributions to the Buffalo Pro Cheer Blog have been a great asset, plans to retire from the squad as a dancer after the Bandits' run is over. She doesn't plan to be a stranger though, as she does intend to help out the squad a lot in the future as its been such a big part of her life the last 5 seasons.
Next up for the Bandettes, they're waiting along with the rest of Banditland to see if there will be another home game in 2 weeks as everyone roots on not only Buffalo, but the same Boston team they just defeated. If they do, it will be held the weekend of May 7-9, depending partly on how the NHL playoffs schedule is for HSBC Arena. As it stands now, that entire weekend is available.
Last year, with the 50th season celebration of the Bills and the AFL, the Bills threw a large season ticket holder draft party at the Ralph complete with locker room tours and appearances and performances by the Buffalo Jills. Attendance was much greater than expected with several thousand on hand. This year, with the switch of the draft from the traditional weekend event to a primetime event, the Bills found a way to still give some of their season ticket holders reason to make the trek to the Ralph with draft parties each day of the draft. They held one Thursday night for premium seat holders and while the response from that was mixed being on a Thursday, the parties on Friday night and Saturday for all season ticket holders drew a few thousand combined. This year's parties were held in the Fieldhouse and, like last year, included locker room tours and appearances and performances by the Buffalo Jills. The only negative was the bright screen behind the Jills as they performed. Word of advice to places staging a performance in the future...the light should be in front of the performers, not behind.
Coming up next for the Jills are a series of smaller appearances including an appearance at Coca-Cola Field in downtown Buffalo for the annual MS Walk and one at Tioga Downs in Nichols, NY. Both appearances take place Saturday, May 1.
After that, the Jills go to Jamaica the week of May 24-29 to shoot their 2010-2011 Buffalo Jills Calendar and if the test shots I saw of some of the girls are any indication, they'll need to include fire extinguishers with the calendars because the shots are that hot. You can see some of the shoot by going along on the trip, too. Get more info at http://buffalojills.net/Article.asp?id=1585512&spid=34534
Finally, the next big Jills event is the Open Practice on June 1 at the Fieldhouse from 7-9pm. Young cheerleaders and dancers get to learn from the pros in an event that's open to the public. The Jills will show the youngsters a routine to perform right there. Cost is $5 per participants and $3 for spectators. Get all the info at http://buffalojills.net/Article.asp?id=1761903&spid=34534
This week's Bandette of The Week is the lovely Jessica. In her 3rd year with the Bandettes, she spends her gamedays on Meghan's line and is unique among her squadmates. Jessica is a 4-year veteran of the United States Navy, having spent the bulk of that time as a boatswain's mate on the USS Carl Vinson. Luckily, she also spent some time on shore duty and, while doing that, danced for the West (Puget) Sound Saints semipro football team. Luckily for us, that didn't satisfy her appetite for dance as she tried out for the Bandettes shortly after leaving active duty and has been on the squad ever since. Known to be quiet and reserved by those around her, she's also pretty forceful when the time is right. Before one game this season, when the Bandettes were greeting fans coming to the game and handing out info on their Jr Bandettes dance clinics, Jessica ran out of Dance Clinic fliers multiple times because she kept beating her linemates to the punch everytime a girl came up the escalator to make sure her parents had the info on the dance clinics. You can read more about Jessica at http://www.bandits.com/profileB.asp?bandetteID=200902
This week, our Jill of The Week is now 2nd year vet Alyssa. Alyssa came into her rookie season on the Jills Ambassador Squad with 2 of her closest friends, Nicole and Kristen, and they became known as the 3 Musketeers. Alyssa is the last one remaining of the 3...on the ambassador squad, that is as her 2 partners-in-crime have both switched over to the dance squad for 2010. While she'll still be spending lots of time with them, as an ambassador, she won't get to much on gamedays. It's certainly nothing for her to worry about...she's a girl everyone loves spending time with...and that goes far beyond guys drawn in by her beauty. She has a guy of her own anyway. But Alyssa's greatest attribute is her personality. She's very warm and giving as well as a little bit silly at times. Her squadmates have great fun in keeping track of some of the silly things she does or says. She's also really enjoying not only the experiences she's had so far as a Jill, but loves getting recognition for them, including her year-end Ambassador Rookie of The Year award that she got at the Jills' post season banquet. And as far as loving the recognition, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she had this date circled on her calendar months ago. You can read more about Alyssa in the webgroup's files section where a copy of her 2009 bio will be for the next week.
We've known the opponents the Bills would face for months and tonight, the dates were finally revealed. Now everyone can start circling dates on their calendars as far as when to come to Buffalo to see the 2010 Buffalo Jills in action! This year however, 1 preseason as well as 1 regular season game will be played in Toronto's Rogers Centre. Hopefully the Bills and Toronto can do a better job with things than they did last year. Also, the lone home preseason date will be the annual Kid's Day game with the Jr Jills joining the Buffalo Jills in pregame as well as a big party near the stadium for the kids complete with appearances by the Buffalo Jills Ambassadors.
All times are ET
Preseason dates
Aug 13 7:30pm Bills at Redskins
Aug 19 7:30 pm Colts vs Bills (Toronto)
Aug 28 6:30pm Bengals at Bills (Kid's Day)
Sept 2 7pm Bills at Lions
Regular Season dates
Sept 12 1pm Dolphins at Bills
Sept 19 1pm Bills at Packers
Sept 26 1pm Bills at Patriots
Oct 3 1pm Jets at Bills
Oct 10 1pm Jaguars at Bills
Oct 17 BYE
Oct 24 1pm Bills at Ravens
Oct 31 1pm Bills at Chiefs
Nov 7 1pm Bears at Bills in Toronto
Nov 14 1pm Lions at Bills
Nov 21 1pm* Bills at Bengals
Nov 28 1pm* Steelers at Bills
Dec 5 1pm* Bills at Vikings
Dec 12 1pm* Browns at Bills
Dec 19 1pm* Bills at Dolphins
Dec 26 1pm* Patriots at Bills
Jan 2 1pm* Bills at Jets
* games in weeks 11-17 are subject to flex scheduling and could be moved to 4:05, 4:15, or 8:20 kickoffs Besides those dates, don't forget that the Jills will be on hand at the Fieldhouse for the NFL draft this week for the Buffalo Bills Season Ticket Holder Draft Parties on Friday and Saturday as well as Thursday for Premium Seat Holders.
Also, there's a benefit for the Food Bank of Western NY happening on Saturday, April 24th called Choppers For Charity and Hogs Against Hunger. It's a bike/car run from Native Pride Travel Plaza in Irving to Club Paradise in Blasdell. Registration begins at 11 and the police-escorted run starts at 1 with a benefit party held at Club Paradise from 2-7 complete with members of the Buffalo Jills helping out. Get more details at http://www.motorcyclemonster.com/events/Choppers-for-Charity-and-2010-04-24-Irving-NY.html
Finally, the Buffalo Jills Calendar Shoot will be done primarily in Jamaica and, like last year, the public is invited to come along. The trip takes place from May 24-29 and includes round trip tickets on US Airways, 5 nights of accommodations at the Riu Ocho Rios Ocean View Hotel in Jamaica as well as a special performance by the Buffalo Jills and a lot more! Check out all the details at http://buffalojills.net/Article.asp?id=1585512&spid=34534
This week, we take a look at rookie cutie Lauren B as our Bandette of The Week. Dancing on Meghan's line, this little lady still seems to be in awe sometimes of what she's accomplishing. She's thought of as loud and talkative by her friends but when it comes to people she doesn't know that well, she's still kinda quiet at times and just absorbing the experiences she's having as a member of the NLL's top dance squad. One aspect she's really loving is how well the dance squad interacts with the players. Even something as simple as getting an autograph for her boyfriend gave her one of the biggest smiles you've ever seen. You can read more about Lauren at http://www.bandits.com/profileB.asp?bandetteID=201003
This week, we take a look at 3rd year vet Vincenza as our Jill of The Week. She's grown a lot over the course of her time on the squad. When she first joined up, she was actually a bit on the shy side and would probably have been even more so if not for her experiences in competing in various beauty pageants in the past. Over the years, her self-confidence has grown with an incredibly hot cover shot on the Buffalo Jills Swimsuit Calendar her 2nd year on the squad. Then, she topped that off with a switch to the dance squad this past season, delighting fans with one of the friendliest smiles on the sidelines while dancing on one end of Omarlla's line next to Murissa. However, despite the fun she had in dancing on gamedays, her schedule won't allow it in 2010 but she's still returning to the Jills for her 4th season in her return to the Ambassador Squad. While we'll obviously miss seeing her on the field dancing, 97Rock and 103.3 The Edge will surely love having her back at the tailgate parties this fall. You can read more about Vincenza in the webgroup's files section where her 2008 bio can be seen this week.
The 2010 Buffalo Jills have started their practices this week and while working on preparing for the Buffalo Bills Season Ticket Holder Draft Parties next week, they've also looked ahead to the preseason and their Junior Jills Program. The program is open to cheerleaders and dancers ages 7-17 and there's no experience necessary and no auditions required.
The workshop dates are as follows
Saturday, July 10th & Sunday, July 11th, 9am-12oon
Saturday, July 31st & Sunday, August 1st, 9am-12noon
After all their work, they'll get to perform in the Kid's Day Preseason game the weekend of August 26-29 alongside the Buffalo Jills.
Also, in addition to the Season Ticket Holder Draft Parties next week, there are a few more appearances to tell you about.
April 23rd, Pott's Banquet Hall on Ogden Street hosts a benefit for the Matt Urban H.O.P.E. Center, a community-focused agency based on the East side of Buffalo. Its mission is to enhance quality of life, preserve neighborhoods, and encourage economic development. It costs $20 to get in and there are raffles and food on hand as well as the chance to meet a few of the 2010 Buffalo Jills at the event which runs from 5:30-9:30pm.
May 1st, Coca-Cola Field hosts their annual MS Walk to fight Multiple Sclerosis from 9am-noon. The walk itself starts at 10am with registration starting at 9...show up early because some of the Buffalo Jills will be helping with registration as well as signing autographs and posing for photos. Get the details on the Walk at http://walknyr.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=WLK_NYR_Details_Buffalo
May 1st is also the date when Tioga Downs hosts the Jills from 3-7pm...a pretty nice event for anyone who's not in WNY and unable to make it to the Jills appearances closer to home.
Also, don't forget the Jills Open Practice on June 1st from 7-9pm at the Fieldhouse. Last year's event was a major success so come join in the fun and have your kids learn from the pros for an evening. $5 for participants and $3 for spectators. Get all the details at http://buffalojills.net/Article.asp?id=1761903&spid=34534
Last week's Bandits game started off with the Bandits behind for much of the game before tying it up and forcing OT, which they weren't able to take advantage of. This week's matchup was pretty much the opposite. A strong start had the hometown team taking a 7-2 score into the half. Unfortunately, a strong 3rd quarter by the visiting Rock made it a tie game less than 6 minutes into the 4th. Thankfully, assistant captain Mike Accursi capped off an MVP performance by putting the Bandits ahead for good as they are now in a 3-way tie for 3rd place with 2 games left in the season, sending the bulk of the 18,575 fans home happy.
The Bandettes, however, had no such struggles. Short by a pair of girls, they were on their game all day long with an autograph session just outside of Aisle 3 in pregame before putting on rousing performances all game long. After the game, they signed autographs and posed for some photos at Pearl Street Grill and Brewery's postgame party.
After a road trip to Orlando this weekend, the Bandits and Bandettes return to HSBC Arena April 24 for the season finale against the Boston Blazers with the playoffs still on the line. The Bandits could still finish anywhere from out of the playoffs to the #1 seed in the East depending on how the results of the final games the next 2 weeks.
BuffaloJills.net has just undergone a major redesign, putting it more in line with other Citadel websites like 97Rock and 103.3 The Edge. Included on the new site, in addition to many of the same great features we've been seeing on the site the last few years is a fan club signup where you can get more info on the squad and what's happening. Check it out at http://buffalojills.net/
Taking a look at another of the 3rd year vets on the Bandettes, we come to Amanda. Known by the fans for her tumbling skills, which she's been showing off the last 3 seasons, she spends her gamedays on Justina's line, a lot more fun than what she does during the week, finishing up as a grad student with a Master's degree already in Sports Administration. Then again, with putting in 6 years in school, maybe it's what she really loves to do. Her love of the Bandettes is what's been really defining her, though. She received not 1, but 2 offseason awards last summer as NLL.com named her as a Girl of The Week last July and then, to top that off, won the top prize on NLLInsider.com in November. All offseason, that site put girls against one another to narrow down the field to one and in November, Amanda won the final round by a better than 2-to-1 margin over a member of the Rochester Knightingales. The fact that she won it all came as no surprise to those who know her because she's noted for her hard work and determination in addition to her beauty. You can read more about Amanda at http://www.bandits.com/profileB.asp?bandetteID=200901
In a squad full of outgoing young ladies, our current Jill of The Week is one of the most outgoing of all. Angelina is one of those girls with a positive outlook on most everything and has been soaking in every experience she can as long as she continues to be a Buffalo Jill. After just finishing up her 3rd season as a dancer on Eileen's line between Eileen and Jill, she's excited to get to continue on for a 4th season this fall, hopefully with some playoff games to cheer in. So far, the Monday Night Football games and Hall of Fame games have been the on-field highlight of her career. We won't get into the off-field highlights because there are so many to list with how easily she makes friends , with males and females alike. It's said that great things come in small packages and Angelina, the shortest of the Jills for all but one of her seasons on the squad, is proof of that. You can read more about Angelina in the webgroup's files section.
It's that time of year again, time for high school students to think about the prom. For the girls, it's about prom dresses. For the guys, it's about the prom date first and foremost and for the 3rd year in a row, 97Rock is putting together a date for one lucky Western NYer. The date includes a limo ride and a member of the Buffalo Jills as the date for the evening. The past few years, that date has been Valerie and the boys who won had the time of their lives...no big surprise when Val is around. This year, however, there's a twist. The lucky winner gets his choice of 5 members of the Buffalo Jills and he couldn't go wrong with any of the choices. Valerie is one of the choices of course, but she's joined by fellow dancer and 2nd year vet Gabrielle as well as 2nd year ambassadors Ruby, Alyssa, Courteney, and Lindsay. Personally, I'm glad it's not me that has to choose because all 6 have a lot of great qualities and an evening with any of them would be outstanding.
Tryouts finished up and the new squad was announced last week with practices for the new squad starting up next week. However, photos have still been going up from 1st cuts at 97Rock from Jills Official Photographer Brian Garman. Now you can see all the photos at http://97rock.com//sectional.asp?id=37097 Included are photos of vets and rookies alike as well as a few photos of some of the vets getting a some last minute touchups on their hair. Make sure to stop at http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a375/buffalojills2005/2010/1st%20cuts/ where every vet as well as most of the beautiful rookies have videos up of their 1st rd tryout routines. Obviously the vets are labelled in the videos themselves but we'll be working on getting the rookies labelled below each video as well.
Finally, our reality star Amanda P, working on If I Can Dream with star maker Simon Fuller, is keeping busy in Hollywood after a weekend away from the house. About a week ago, she even shot a series of photos for a hot pin-up calendar. Make sure to check out the Calendar Shoot video here on the Buffalo Pro Cheer Blog.
The Bandits' slow start against the team that beat them for the 2006 Championship came back to bite them as they fell behind early and never fully recovered. They did, however, give fans reason to cheer as, with 1:26 left in the game, they erased a 4-goal deficit to force OT but fell short in the extra session as the Mammoth buried a shot over goaltender Angus Goodleaf to secure the win, making the hat tricks by Mark Steenhuis, Brett Bucktooth, and Kevin Dostie into afterthoughts in the discussion of this game.
Thankfully, the Bandettes started and finished strong, back to their full squad of 13 girls with the returns of Jessica and Kirsten as they put on great performances during intermissions as well as during the game in the Zamboni entrance. They even sported some pink and black outfits in support of the NLL's efforts to "Black Out Breast Cancer" as players across the league sported pink helmets and, in some cases, even uniforms that will be auctioned off in support of the fight against Breast Cancer. Following the game, all but a pair of the girls joined the fans and players at Pearl Street Grill and Brewery to relax, sign autographs, and pose for photos. There was even a little bit of light banter between Bandettes co-captain Melissa and Bandits star Johnny Tavares. Melissa was this past week's NLL Girl of The Week and, as such, got front page billing on Bandits.com. She got bumped, however, when Tavares got awarded the NLL's Player of The Month award for March. This is one of the truly great things about the NLL, the mutual respect and camaraderie between the players and the dancers of the teams. In the NLL, the players play for the purest of reasons...the love of the game as none of them will ever get rich off of the paychecks they receive from the NLL. In the larger leagues like the NFL and NBA, this type of interaction between players and cheerleaders is rare because those players are, for the most part, less down-to-earth with all the money thrown at them in those sports.
The Bandettes will be back in action next week as the Bandits host the rival Toronto Rock at HSBC Arena Saturday night.
The final game of the regular season, on April 24th against the Boston Blazers, is preceded by a Bandettes Dance Clinic at HSBC Arena from 2-4. Open to females ages 16 and up, you will learn a Bandettes routine that has been performed at the games during the 2010 season. Whether you are interested in trying out next season or just want to come and dance for the day, this is for you!
Registration starts @ 1:30pm on the day of the event.
Cost is $20.
Please email the Bandettes @ beabandette@yahoo.com with your name to register or with further questions!
I suppose it's fitting that this week's Bandette of The Week is none other than 2nd year captain and 3rd year vet Justina. She and Jill of The Week Jessica are actually pretty good friends and Justina even came to last year's Bills draft party at Ralph Wilson Stadium in part to support Jess. Of course there's also the fact that Justina's a big Bills fan as well as a Bandits and Sabres fan to consider. But there's a lot more to Justina than her love of sports. She's currently a graduate student on her way to becoming a teacher. After seeing her working with Jr Bandettes her 1st 2 years on the squad, any student would be lucky to be in her class...and that goes beyond the boys who will end up having a crush on her. As I noted earlier, she's a 3rd year vet and a 2nd year captain, which is quite an accomplishment, making captain in only her 2nd season on the squad. But Justina showed strong leadership skills even in her rookie season as has been exceptionally enthusiastic about the Bandettes and the Bandits from the start, even going so far as to label herself as a good luck charm that helped the Bandits win the title in her rookie season. We're hoping that having her and her co-captain Beth back together again, after Beth's season off, helps keep the Bandits on the winning track to another Champions Cup in 2010. You can read more about Justina at http://www.bandits.com/profileB.asp?bandetteID=200911
This week, we take a look at 3rd year vet Jessica as our Jill of The Week. There's probably not a lot to say about Jess that hasn't been said already. She's always got that smile of hers showing and following the 2008 season, got to show Hawaii a little bit of what we love about her as she was selected to represent the Jills in the Pro Bowl. Found dancing on Eileen's line this past season between Eileen and Valerie, Jess's cute smile isn't the only thing about her that's adorable. She's genuinely a fun person to be around and is great at picking people up when they're down. She can either do that by being genuinely caring or, if she thinks it's the right place for it, genuinely silly. Of course, once a person gets to know her, just having her around is enough to lighten a person's mood. Thankfully, we'll get to have her around for a 4th season as well. You can read more about Jess at http://buffalojills.net/roster/jessicaL.php
During the past two weeks, two Buffalo Jills Cheerleaders teamed up to provide their thoughts and insight to the Jills Cheerleader audition process. In today's final installment here on BuffaloBills.com, Lisa, a three-year Jills veteran and Natalie, the newest Jill, share their thoughts on making the 2010 Jills squad.
Lisa, Jills 2010 veteran;
Here we go!
The 2010 season has officially begun, and I couldn’t be more excited. The final team was announced this past Tuesday after the third cut. The new team has 44 girls total, 28 veterans and 16 rookies. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know a few of the rookies so far, and I’m really looking forward to the upcoming season with them.
This week's Girl of the Week is Melissa, a member of the Buffalo Bandettes Dance Team. She is in her sixth year with team, having joined immediately after finishing high school and has served as a co-captain for the past three seasons.
Melissa started dancing at a young age and the passion has stayed with her through the years.
"I started dancing in a studio before I turned three years old. I studied tap, jazz, ballet, hip-hop and lyrical. I started cheerleading in middle school and danced competitively throughout high school. I also coached cheerleading while in high school and college," said Melissa.
rookies-Amanda V, Caitlyn, Danielle, Emily, Gina, Jaclyn, Jessica W, Jill, Lindsey, Meghan, Morgan, Natalie, Sara J, Sara S, Taryn, and Jen G
A couple notes
Brianne spent the 2005-07 seasons dancing on Omarlla's line before taking the last 2 seasons off
Kristen and Nicole were rookie ambassadors last year and made the switch to the dance squad this year
Vincenza, originally an ambassador, spent last season as a dancer and moves back to the ambassador squad this season
We already reported on the draft party appearances yesterday but we also have 2 major events to bring up today. Last September, the Jills held an Open Practice in the Fieldhouse in which young ladies could learn a routine from the Jills. The event turned out to be a bigger success than hoped for and this year's Open Practice is scheduled for June 1 from 6:30-8:30pm. Cost is $5 for participants and $3 for spectators. Get all the details at http://buffalojills.net/appearances/details.php?recordID=88 and you can see photos and videos from last year's event at http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a375/buffalojills2005/2009/Open%20Practice/
Finally, the 8th Annual Buffalo Jills Golf Tournament will be held Monday, August 2nd at Westwood Country Club in Williamsville, NY. That's all we have at the moment on that event but at least it gives everyone plenty of opportunity to get the day off and maybe even go get a look at the course you'll be playing this summer.
This week's Bandette of The Week is no stranger to anyone who's paid any attention to the squad at all the last few years. In her 6th season on the squad is Melissa, who's in her 3rd season as a co-captain on Meghan's line. She's been dancing since she was 2 and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. And she shouldn't...when she's performing seems to be when she smiles the brightest. In addition to her experience and leadership on the squad, she's also contributed to NLL.com as a writer when squadmates have gotten named NLL Girl of The Week in the past. She earned a degree in communications 2 years ago originally looking into journalism but switched her focus to Integrated Marketing and currently works as a development specialist coordinating fundraisers and working with the non-profit organization that the foundation she works for supports. Her foundation's gain is the journalism industry's loss but hopefully we'll still see the occasional article from her on NLL.com with more NLL Girl of The Week write-ups. Last month, the NLL gave her the honor herself, an award a long time coming. Check that article out at http://www.nll.com/article.php?id=4402
