This week, our 1st photo from the Jills comes from the Bills' Friday night draft party and features 2nd year vet Kristen, 9th year director Stephanie, and rookie Ambassador Gina. Kristen, as we previously told you, is moving over from the ambassador squad to the dance squad. With the 2010 season, Stephanie will have put in 17 seasons with the Jills, with an 8-year career on the sidelines including a pair of Super Bowls. Gina will be one of those girls you'll see at the 97Rock and 103.3 The Edge Tailgate parties this fall at the Ralph as she joined the ambassador squad this year. Our 2nd photo comes from the Jills Open Practice held at the start of June. Shown posing are 2nd year vet Courteney and rookie Meghan. Something that isn't widely known to the fans is the fact that rookie Jills are paired up with a veteran "buddy" to turn to for help in acclimating to the squad. Courteney is fellow ambassador squad member Meghan's buddy. We can't say for sure that Courteney's trademark positivity rubbed off on Meghan because she may have already had it already. One veteran who has definitely rubbed off on Meghan is Murissa...they both just love to pose for the camera like nobody's business. From the Bandettes, we have a photo from the Pearl Street Postgame party following the February 6 game against the Toronto Rock. Shown posing for the camera are Meghan, Beth, and Justina. Meghan just completed her 5th year on the squad, the last 2 as captain, and has been a big contributor in helping get the info on the Bandettes out to the fans. Beth was in her 4th season on the squad after starting out in 2006 with Meghan and taking 2009 off. Justina finished up her 2nd season as a captain like Meghan did, but got named captain in only her 2nd season, with her rookie season being the 2008 Championship Season.
The Blondes Vs Brunettes Game is held in various cities across the nation, with its roots in Washington DC. The purpose of the event is a fundraiser for the Alzheimer Association and features a powderpuff flag football game between 2 sets of women. In Buffalo, the 1st annual game was held at Amherst's Sweet Home High School on Saturday afternoon and featured more intensity than local fans have seen on the pro level in a few weeks. Both squads, coached by fitness trainers at Gold's Gym, played hard from start to finish in a game that ended on a 12-12 tie. The Buffalo Jills themselves were a big part of this event as well with 4 blondes, Christina, Jackie, Jennifer, and Lynn cheering on their team and Katie, Lisa, Murissa, and Gabrielle cheering on the brunettes. The Jills cheered on the sidelines as well as spent some time signing autographs, posing for pictures, and selling raffle tickets. Of course with 8 talented and beautiful dancers, they weren't going to get away without performing as well and they put on a halftime performance for the few hundred fans in attendance. There was another way the Jills contributed as well, though. Jills director Stephanie M played at OL in the 1st half, drawing complaints from the blondes for her aggressive blocking style. Her blocking served the brunettes well as she delivered a key block on a reverse play for a touchdown by former Buffalo Jill Danielle H (1998-2002). The 2nd half saw Steph at WR playing decoy and drawing tight coverage from opposing defenders allowing her teammates to get open. In the end, the 12-12 tie showed how tightly contested this game was. A game that was supposed to be a flag football game featured a few tackles here and there as the intensity level rose as the game went on. Danielle won the Brunettes' MVP award as she made another big play on a reverse late in the game in addition to her TD run. Afterwards, both teams retired to Average Joe's Sports Bar for a victory party to collect awards, eat, drink, and even got shots bought for them by the game's referees. Maybe NFL referees would get thought of better if they did that for the league's players...just a thought. We also had 1 more Jills sighting as former Jill Francine P (2000-02) made an appearance for the game and victory party as well, still looking like she could grab a set of pom-poms and fit right in on the sidelines alongside the 2009-10 Buffalo Jills. Check out the pics at http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a375/buffalojills2005/2009/BVB%20Game/ and check out a few media reports from the event at http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/Blondes_play_brunettes_at_powder_puff_20091017 & http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=71129&catid=37
The Jills are going to be plenty busy today with 3 big appearances for the Bills game. Meet a few of the Jills at the Aud Sports Bar and Grill in Depew for the Edge Away Game Party with wing and drink specials, halftime buffet, and James giving away prizes during commercial breaks and halftime. http://www.wedg.com/Article.asp?id=872591 If you'd like a different atmosphere, check out Sole Restaurant where they feature the Jills behind the bar. Watch the game while getting a drink from one of Buffalo's most beautiful women? Sounds like a winning combination! http://buffalojills.net/appearances/details.php?recordID=50 If you'd like to help out a worthy cause while watching the game, the Suneel's Light Foundation is holding a Tailgate For A Cure at Samuel's Grande Manor in Clarence in an event raising funds to fight Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy. With live music, a buffet, cash bar, Chinese auction, and an appearance by some of the Buffalo Jills as well with the game playing on the big screens. http://www.suneelslight.org/html/tailgate2009.html
This will be the final edition of the Pictures of The Week for the 2008 offseason as we start up the Jill of The Week feature next week with pictures and info of the 48 members of the 2008-09 Buffalo Jills. This week's Jills photo comes direct from Jills Director Stephanie M and features the women who guide the Jills through their training, their responsibilities, and on gamedays. On the left, we have the Jills choreographer Kelli Wagner. Kelli took her current job with the Jills in 2002 and does more than turn heads at the Ralph on gamedays. She has successfully grown the Junior Jills organization into a coveted program for youth in Western New York and it’s surrounding areas. Kelli’s choreography has also been featured on Fox TV, ABC-Buffalo, several Buffalo radio station events, many community events, overseas military shows, as well as HSBC Arena-Buffalo. Kelli is the three time recipient of America’s Young Choreographer of the Year and has received numerous choreography and high score awards. In the middle is Jills Director Stephanie Mateczun and Steph spent a number of years on the sideline herself before taking the reins as Jills Director in 2002. Since then, the Jills have added on the Ambassador Squad, gotten more national positive recognition, many more appearance requests, and the Jills Swimsuit Calendar now includes every member of the squad. Other squads, even with their smaller numbers, only include a part of the squad on their calendars. Nichole Becker, on the right, is in her 3rd season as the coordinator after cheering through the 2000-2005 seasons, along with rookie squadmates Omarlla and Eileen. It was a new position created because of all the extra work that goes into the squad the past several years. Nichole was actually already performing some of the duties of coordinator her last few seasons as captain but the increased popularity and exposure of the squad caused the position of coordinator to become a full-time one. From the Bandettes, we have a pic taken near the end of the 3rd quarter of the first game against the Minnesota Swarm. Incidentally, home games against the Swarm will be fewer and farther between as the NLL recently announced that Minnesota would be moving to the NLL's West Division. But I digress. This picture, taken just before the squad went out on the floor for their 3rd intermission routine, features Bandettes co-captains Melissa and Meghan with rookie Justina smiling for the camera. The smiles may have been from the way the game was going. After falling behind 9-6 at the half, the Bandits poured on 5 goals to none in the 3rd to hold an 11-9 lead at the time this picture was taken. Continuing our look into the past at the Buffalo Bombshells, we see current Buffalo Bandette Korinne in a pic from the 2002 AFL season.
This week, we take a look at another pair of photos from the Congratulatory Party and from last year's Jills Golf Tournament. From the Congratulatory Party, we have a shot with Nichole, Jennifer, and Stephanie M. Nichole spent the 2000-2005 seasons dancing on the sidelines of Ralph Wilson Stadium and then moved more behind the scenes starting in 2006 when she took on the role of Jills Coordinator. Jennifer is one of promising rookies with the Jills this year and besides being a real go-getter, she loves MTV's Real World. Stephanie spent a few years dancing with the Jills a few years ago and has been the Jills director since 2002, guiding the squad through increased positive exposure with additions like Jills events at different times of the year, the Ambassador Squad, and a roster that keeps growing. From last year's Jills Golf Tournament, we have a trio of 2nd year vets. Jill D is a former competitive dancer and is one of the most friendly girls around. Katie C is as zany as they come and her fun-loving attitude is obviously not the only thing about her drawing comparisons to Cameron Diaz. Lisa was last year's rookie of the year and that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone as she's been a cheerleader since the age of 4, 18 years so far. Don't forget! This weekend is the Taste of Buffalo in Niagara Square in downtown Buffalo and it'll be a great chance to not only sample a lot of different local cuisines, but meet many of the rookie Buffalo Jills we'll be seeing on the sideines this fall. Also, if you haven't gotten your tickets for the Jills Golf Tournament on July 21st yet, it's not too late to reserve a day of golf, entertainment, prizes, and the company of the entire Buffalo Jills squad. Just visit http://www.buffalojills.net/contact.html to get your tickets.
This week, we complete our look at the women who guide our ladies on the sidelines with Jills Director Stephanie M. Her dedication to the squad comes from having been on the squad herself a number of years ago. We won't embarass her by saying when but short of the hairstyle, she doesn't look any older than she did in the calendar we found at Toy Town. Since taking the reins as director in 2002, she's done a lot of work to improve and increase the public image of the Jills, so much so that the new position of coordinator was invented last year to ease the workload. Every Jill now is featured in the calendar whereas a lot of squads only feature one per month. This helped the calendar practically sell out during the 2005 season. The Jr. Jills program seems to grow larger every season and she introduced the Ambassador Squad program to the Jills, allowing girls who may lack in dance skills but have an outstanding ability to professionally mingle and converse with others to still realize their dream of becoming a professional cheerleader. Be sure to check out the files section of the webgroup (registration required) for a look at Stephanie from the past few years.
