After 10 years of trying to become a National Football League cheerleader, Hollister’s Susie Sanchez’s dream came true as a member of the Oakland Raiderettes in 2011 as a 37-year-old grandmother. After missing the cut for the team in 2012, Sanchez thought her days of a cheerleader were over.
Now 39, Sanchez, though, wanted to go out on top. Sanchez ended her cheerleading career over the weekend trying out for the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.
Sanchez, who was one of more than 300 hopefuls, didn’t make it past the first day of cuts but she was proud to give it a shot.
“I thought if I’m going to be done I might as well be done going for the best,” she said. “The top NFL cheer team is the cheer team for the Dallas Cowboys.”
Sanchez flew out to the Dallas on a redeye Thursday and tried out Friday, she said. In front of 15 judges and cheerleaders 15 or more years younger, she knew it was a long shot.
“It was a good experience,” she said. “They do the first cut a little differently than other teams. They do a freestyle dance, which isn’t my strongest part. My goal was to get to boot camp, which is a 12-week program. I didn’t however but I wanted to fulfill my dream and I didn’t give up.”
The Cowboy tryout, though, gives Sanchez closure and the ability to look for the next stage in her life – motivational speaking.
“It was a goal to begin my closure with this whole experience,” she said. “I think I did that.”
She recieved even more closure during her flight to Texas when she ran into a former Raiderettes coach, she said.
“It was a good dialogue,” she said. “It was good to say good-bye to the Raiders organization like that. She wished me good luck in Dallas as well.”
But the end of her cheerleading career came at a good time, she said.
“If I didn’t put a cap on it I’ll never stop,” Sanchez said. “I think I can still do it but my daughter is almost 20 so I think this is a good thing.”
She continued: “I’m a dance. I didn’t go out there to be a grandmother dancer. I was a dancer. It was a 10 year journey. My first tryout was in 2006. And after all those teams that I didn’t make I always went home and I accepted it. It was important to be driven by them.”
Sanchez became a professional cheerleader for indoor football team San Jose Wolves – now based in Stockton – in 2010. The next year she made the Raiderettes.
Sanchez now plans to become a motivational speaker, telling people her 10-year journey through cheerleading.
“People want to hear my story,” she said. “It’s inspirational. It tells people to not give up on their dream.”
