While the Bills and the Sabres get a lot of national attention because of the status of the NFL and NHL, lacrosse is a sport that's growing in popularity and Western NY is a hotbed of lacrosse interest. Part of that is because of the number of Indian reservations in the region as lacrosse is a sport invented by Native Americans. Another reason is the fact that Buffalo, which hasn't won a championship in football since the mid 60s and has never won one in hockey, has 4 championships to its credit in the box lacrosse league of the NLL. While the NLL doesn't have true cheerleaders like in football or basketball, it does have dance squads and the Buffalo Bandettes are the premier squad in the league. Bills fans even got a glimpse of what to expect from the 2011 Bandettes when they were part of the largest halftime show in the NFL outside of the Super Bowl in joining the Jills and several Jills alumni in Toronto last month. After the Toronto game, the Bandettes went right to work on getting ready for the season and in the last month, perfected a pair of performances they put on for Bandits fans attending the Bandits Open Practice. But in addition to performing, they took some time to meet with the fans and take some photos and letting us meet rookies Krista, Jessica M, Danielle, Noelle, and Chrissy.
One of the highlights this year was an impromptu wrestling session. In lacrosse as in hockey, there are fights and you can't exactly practice for those by throwing punches at teammates. Instead, the players formed a circle and one player would challenge another. Well, towards the end of the session, Bandettes director Jaclyn sent Lauren B and Jessica M out to the circle. They went out in the middle and Lauren challenged Brandon Francis, the Bandits' enforcer and one of the best fighters in the NLL. He was intimidated by Lauren and Jessica however and Lauren felt like Rocky Balboa coming back over to the squad afterwards.
Lauren B, Jessica M, Danielle, and Justina
Chrissy, Jessica M, Jessica H, Kirsten, Lauren S, and Chelsea
Check out all the pics at http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b87/bandettes/2011/Open%20Practice/
Coming up next for the Bandettes, they have a dance clinic for girls ages 16 and up going on Dec 12th at the arena.
-This clinic is for girls ages 16 and up.
-Price: $20.00
-Wear comfortable dance clothes and dance shoes/sneakers.
-Any questions contact us at beabandette@yahoo.com.
-Security will be checking in all dancers and the arena will be closed to the public so unfortunately guests will not be able to attend this event.
Their first game action will be on January 22nd when the Bandits host the Toronto Rock
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