With Saint Louis University’s men’s basketball team playing as well as they have recently and the implementation of free student admission, more fans have found their way to Chaifetz Arena to cheer on their beloved Billikens.
Those who do that job the best, however, are not sitting in the student section of the stands, but rather are on the court right alongside the team.
The Saintsations are comprised of two groups: a cheering squad and a dance team. The dance group performs during the halftime show and also cheers along the sidelines in front of the fans. The cheer team performs acrobatic displays of tumbling in order to energize the crowd.
The Saintsations cheer and dance every home game in hopes of inspiring their basketball team to victory and entertaining the fans during intermissions and timeouts. Cheering and dancing, however, are not as simple as the talented group of young women makes it seem.
“We perform a new halftime show each game. We spend one day learning a new routine for two and a half hours and then three more days perfecting it and working on our techniques. We also have workouts twice a week,” explained senior Saintsations’ dance team captain, Alyssa Wedding.
Wedding has been dancing different styles ever since she was a young girl. She participated in jazz dance and ballet when she was young and then joined the dance team at Alton High School. The transition from high school dance to a collegiate team was not easy for Wedding.
“At first it made me nervous dancing in front of so many people, but now I am excited to see people I know and their faces in the crowd,” she said.
This is Wedding’s last season as a Saintsations’ dancer, but she does not plan to hang up her dancing shoes anytime soon. She plans to audition for the St. Louis Rams dance team and join in the footsteps of former Saintsations Alicia Purdy and Tessa Eichenauer.
In Chaifetz Arena’s four-year history, only one other time has there been a larger crowd than there was on Feb. 4 for the game against Dayton. With such an electrifying crowd, the Saintsations’ job to energize the team was not only easier, but more enjoyable as well.
“With more people in the stands, it makes cheering more fun. It is always better with 10,000 people there than 5,000,” junior cheer captain Jenae Dearing said. “Saturday was the closest I have been to being nervous. Not because I was afraid to perform, but because I just wanted the team to win.”
This doesn’t mean that the women only perform during the men’s games. The Saintsations also perform during soccer games, women’s basketball games and volleyball matches.
Dearing isn’t your average cheerleader; she also is a nursing major, hoping to some day use her wisdom to help others that have fallen ill. Her determination to be the best at everything she does drives her daily. These women are no slouches in what they do. Their devotion to the SLU community is unmatched by any in the amount of time they spend practicing and performing for the enjoyment of others.
You don’t have to attend SLU, however, to appreciate the work of the Saintsations.
“Not only do we work hard to support all of SLU’s athletic teams, but we also reach out to many organizations in the St. Louis Community,” Dearing said.
That’s right. As if balancing jobs, classes, homework, practices, performances and other extra-curricular activities wasn’t enough for these women, throw on making public appearances at different hospitals and charity fundraisers in the St. Louis area.
The Saintsations have worked with the Junior Saintsations, which provides young girls with the opportunity to perform dances, participated in the Race for the Cure Run for the fight against breast cancer; volunteered at Cardinal Glennon and St. Louis Children’s Hospital, giving t-shirts and basketballs to ill children; made an appearance at “The Bull” country radio station’s “Boat Loads of Toys” event to give new toys to underprivledged children; and much more.
“We are a smart, ambitious, dedicated group of girls, Wedding said. “ Our hearts are out there to cheer on the teams whether they are good or bad, but we are more than just dancers.”
