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02/04/2023 08:22 AMIt is not every day that you hear about someone from a town in Connecticut being a part of a professional National Football League (NFL) cheerleading team. For Guilford native Allyson Gunderman, she has proven that anything is possible.
Allyson started cheerleading when she was in sixth grade, and after many years of hard work and dedication, she is now a part of the Jacksonville Jaguars cheerleading squad. Allyson started gaining the necessary fundamentals of cheerleading when she was three years old when she took up dance classes.
“I’ve been taking dance classes since I was 3 years old and am grateful to have had many dance opportunities and experiences from the studios I attended in Guilford. I competed, performed in the Main Street Parade in Disney and danced in New York City while in high school,” says Allyson. “Dance was always my happy place and my stress relief. On days when I had a bad day and had piles of homework to do, that’s when I would want to go to dance the most.”
Allyson graduated from Guilford High School and then went on to attend Hofstra University. She continued to dance on the club team at Hofstra and earned her degree in Mathematics. After graduation, she realized dancing was still her true passion.
“I moved to the DC area and realized I didn’t want to stop dancing, and so I continued taking classes and worked towards auditioning for professional teams,” says Allyson. “I earned a spot on the Baltimore Blast’s cheerleading team, cheering for Baltimore’s major arena soccer league team.”
The Baltimore Blast Cheerleaders are coached by director Liz Guaraldo, who is going into her 16th year as head coach. Guaraldo knew Allyson had a lot of talent when she first earned her spot on the team and knew she had the drive to go far with the sport.
“Ally is a very technically sound dancer. When she auditioned, I could see that she had technique. What she lacked was a performance quality,” says Guaraldo. “As we traveled through the audition process, she applied feedback immediately, practiced on the side, and asked several of the veterans for help perfecting our style for the team before the audition.”
Allyson was a member of the Baltimore Blast Cheerleaders for one year and was able to grow tremendously.
“There, I was able to grow as a dancer, performer, and person. I learned from some of the most incredible people I’ve met in the professional cheerleading world,” says Allyson. “Their support gave me the confidence to audition for the Jacksonville Jaguars last spring.”
Guaraldo says she takes pride in seeing the growth of her dancers and helps provide the tools needed for them to make it to the next level.
“I ask all of the girls to disclose which teams they are auditioning for to put them in touch with the right people, whether that be a director of a team or girls that I know,” says Coach Guaraldo. “I also like to bring in choreographers to mimic that style of dance and expose them to that. I run my program so that when girls make NFL teams, it is like a seamless transition.”
After Allyson made the Baltimore Blast team, she performed in front of about 5,000 people whenever there was a game at the stadium. That exposure — and using the word ‘no’ as motivation to succeed — have helped Allyson throughout her career.
“The hardest part for me and other girls trying to make an NFL team is turning that ‘no’ around, taking it, and realizing that maybe the no doesn’t mean that you might not make it,” says Allyson. “It means that right now, maybe it’s not the right fit with that coach or the style the team is going with that year. That’s okay because that means you can keep working towards it and that your hard work will pay off.”
For Allyson, her hard work did, in fact, pay off because she ultimately auditioned and landed a spot on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ cheerleading team.
When auditioning for an NFL cheerleading team, auditions take place in May. After that, the team practices throughout the summer and preseason games, the regular season, and the offseason. When not practicing, the team often gets asked to perform at various events during the offseason.
“In the offseason, we also still do appearances related to the Jaguars Foundation and may have practices if we get asked to perform,” says Allyson. “Usually we perform for the Jaguars draft party in April, so we still have events until the next time auditions come around.”
One of the biggest struggles with being an NFL cheerleader, and often an unknown fact among the public, is that it is a part-time job. For Allyson, this means taking on other jobs in various capacities to help make ends meet.
“I am working different freelance jobs right now. I work as a wedding florist in Florida, and the florist that I work for is awesome,” says Allyson. “A lot of it is time management, too, because most of my work is in the evening because that’s when people are off of work from their jobs.”
Despite working multiple jobs, Allyson points out that her main focus is performing with the Jaguars, especially during football season. This past fall, she got the chance to travel to London with the team.
“This season, I’ve gotten the chance to perform to a sold-out Wembley Stadium for the Jaguars’ London game, choreograph a pregame routine, and live out the dream of being a professional dancer,” says Allyson. “The energy and excitement that comes from doing what you love is indescribable, and the energy and excitement of being on the field for an NFL game is unlike anything else.”