Golden Girls turning heads at national level

To many, the Golden Girls are a mere sidelight at Missouri basketball and football games. Their dance routines are impressive, but the main attraction is the game.

The group is more accomplished than is apparent to the average fan, though.

The Golden Girls have won three national championships and have a chance for another one. After submitting competition tapes, the Golden Girls, the Missouri cheerleaders and Missouri mascot Truman the Tiger were selected by the National Dance Association and the National Cheerleaders Association to compete at the Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships in April in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Golden Girls coach Shannon Fry said a lot of people don’t understand that her squad is capable of more than promoting school spirit.

“Obviously, our main focus, our main priority is supporting the team and performing and trying to get the crowd involved at basketball games and football games,” Fry said. “It’s kind of a little extra for them to get to go and actually compete in a fine art, which all of my girls are trained in.”

To qualify for national competition, the Golden Girls sent in a tape with 30 second clips of four different routines: hip hop, jazz, pom and an incorporation of styles. At the national championships, the squad will have one performance that combines all of those styles.

The Golden Girls won national NDA titles in 1991 and 1992, then won a championship in 2003 at the United Spirit Association national competition. .

Fry said the a full schedule and limited practice time will prevent the Golden Girls from competing at the United Spirit Association event in February.

“We don’t get a lot of time in the studio like a lot of dance teams do, in front of the mirrors working on the technical skills, so that’s why it’s really pushing it for us (to compete in February),” she said.

All 28 Golden Girls perform at football games, but the squad is split for basketball games. Since the championship competitions require squads of 20 members or less, only the 16 Golden Girls who perform at men’s basketball games will go to Florida.

For Brittany Mahesh, a Golden Girl who performs at women’s basketball games, just being one of 16 freshmen on the squad is reward enough.

“It’s just something for me to work a little harder and maybe do next year or the year after or whatever,” Mahesh said.

Winning is starting to become familiar to Fry. She was a member of 1991 and 1992 championship squads and was the coach when the Golden Girls won their third championship in 2003. She even won a championship as a cheerleader in high school.

“It was an awesome, awesome feeling, but it didn’t even compare with when the team that I coached won,” Fry said. “That was so much better, so much better.

“It’s an emotional attachment, and I know how much time they put in and how hard they work and see how much they love it, and to see their parents so excited and so proud of them, it’s just so amazing.”

The cheerleaders have been selected for the NDA/NCA event for the eighth consecutive year, taking top-10 honors in each of the past six years at the competition. Truman the Tiger, seeded first among mascots in the competition this year, also has had a successful career, competing three of the past four years and winning the 2003 National Mascot of the Year.