It sometimes takes 300 kicks in one day!

Worcesterite Kristin Gauvin talks about the star-studded fun -- and demanding physical work -- of being a New England Patriots cheerleader

By Susan Dewey

Cheerleaders! In our culture, they are still identified as the top of the heap. Cheerleaders are always the prettiest girls, the ones with flawless skins and perfect bodies, with long, pony-tailed hair that always seems to swish perfectly as they bounce, twirl and flip through life.

"Oh SHE'S a cheerleader," people say and everyone nods knowingly. Even long after cheerleaders have stopped doing cartwheels, their friends and acquaintances refer to them as former-cheerleaders.

Even though most will not admit it, just about every red-blooded American woman wishes at one point or another that they could be a cheerleader.

Aside from the glory of being one of the chosen few, cheerleaders also will tell you how much fun the clothes are. If you are lucky enough to be a New England Patriots cheerleader you get to wear white, knee-high boots, short-short skirts covered in spangles, stars and stripes and above your perfectly flat bare midriff, a star-studded top.

And then of course there's the fact that you get to be around the football players, who no matter what your age, always seem to be the cutest, most athletic men-boys.

Those who have been a cheerleader will admit that most of all, cheerleading is pretty much about having fun.

And what could be more fun than being a New England Patriots cheerleader in 2002?

Almost a year later, the Patriots magical championship season still warms New Englanders everywhere, even on cold, losing Sundays in October. What perfect Super Bowl Champions these boys are -- just a blitz of good looks, great personalities and charm. What other team can beat Tom Brady, Lawyer Milloy, Troy Brown, Adam Vinaiteri...each one cuter, friendlier and more sincere than the next.

Kristin Gauvin, 20, of Worcester admits that she couldn't have picked a better time to become a New England Patriots cheerleader.

And yet the funny thing is, she tried out for the Patriots squad last spring completely on a whim. The Assumption College junior stumbled across the Patriots auditions on the Internet. She was looking for auditions for dancers -- not cheerleaders.

"I had never done cheerleading until I made it on the Patriots squad," Kristin says. "I had tried everything else in dance -- jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical -- the whole spectrum. Then I saw the Patriots audition and I thought 'that might be fun'."

Gauvin, who has been performing as a dancer since the age of 3, says she had heard good things about the Patriots cheerleader squad. "I actually knew some Patriots cheerleaders who were on the team a couple of years ago -- I knew them from a couple of beauty pageants I had done with the Miss America organization," Guavin says. "They talked highly of the Patriots cheerleaders -- said it was a great resume builder and said how much fun they had....so I decided to give it a shot."

With the confident nonchalance of a very pretty girl who has performed in front of audiences all her life, Kristin and her best friend went to the auditions held last spring at Foxboro High School. 350 hopefuls came to the first try-out.

"I never even really considered making it on the team -- but the more my name kept getting called for come-backs, it started to get nerve-wracking," Kristin says. "I started to believe it would really happen."

Kristin admits that she has always had some ambivalent feelings about cheerleaders. "I was one of those people that kind of shunned cheerleaders," Kristin, who graduated from Worcester's Holy Name High School, says. " When you think of a cheerleader you think of someone ditzy because that is how they are portrayed on TV. That still kind of gets thrown in my face sometimes."

The well-spoken business and marketing major, who transferred to Assumption from Hofstra last year, says she still is amazed that she made the Patriots' high-profile squad of 38 gorgeous women. She says there were several women trying out last spring who had been through the sometimes grueling tryouts three or four times.

Despite the pressure, the competitive juices of a girl who is taking a double major at Assumption, as well as managing the college's dance team and holding down a job at a local dance studio, kicked in during the try-outs last April.

For the second audition, the girls were asked to wear tan tights, jazz shows and a halter top. That was when Kristin learned the first thing she would have to give up to become a Patriots cheerleader. "Basically, they wanted you to wear something for the audition that would show the same amount of skin that your uniform shows...to make sure you didn't have any visible tattoos or piercings," Kristin says, admitting that she had to get rid of her belly-button ring.

Still, the audition process, which also included a one on one interview with Tracy Sormanti, Patriots cheerleader director, went smoothly for Kristin. That was until the last day when the wait to hear if she made the team was hard -- and long. "I was actually the very last one to be called up," she says, also noting how hard it was when her best friend did not make the team.

And then her hard work began. All summer, two days a week, Kristin traveled to Foxboro for rehearsals that sometimes lasted six hours or longer. "The hardest thing about cheerleading is the physical aspect," Kristin admits. "We sometimes have to do 300 kicks in rehearsal -- which really is a lot -- but it sure keeps us in shape, and the crowd loves kicks!"

All Kristin's work paid off when the season started in the Patriots brand new Gillette Stadium. "The opening night game was on FOX TV -- it was a Monday Night Football game," Kristin says her voice warming at the memory. "It was such a big game because the Patriots beat the Steelers last year to go to the Super Bowl -- it was so exciting. There was a big fireworks display every time the Patriots got a touchdown and they killed the Steelers -- it was an awesome game!"

Kristin laughs when she is asked what it is like performing in front of 70,000 people in Gillette Stadium, and occasionally millions more on national TV. "It is just amazing -- you never get a chance to dance in front of that many people. It is thrilling," she says and the carefully controlled cool of the ambitious business student -- who plans to run her own dance studio some day -- is replaced by an infectious enthusiasm that no doubt catapulted her past older, more experienced cheerleaders in the 2002 try-outs.

Kristin says her parents, who live in Worcester's Grafton Street area, are really proud of their daughter. "My dad really loves it - he brags about it all the time," she says with a laugh. She admits though that her boyfriend, a student at WPI, hasn't always been happy that his girlfriend is a Patriots cheerleader.

"At first he loved it -- he thought it was an awesome thing," Kristin says. "But then I did the swimsuit calendar. He was a little upset...he didn't want people looking at me in a negative way. But then he saw that people looked at the calendar and were positive..."

Kristin says that anyone she meets -- male or female -- can't resist asking what New England's larger-than-life Patriots heroes are like in the flesh.

She puts on a funny, gushy voice when she imitates a new acquaintance who has learned she is a Patriots cheerleader. "They always ask 'Oh, is Tom Brady really cute? Do you get to hang out with the football players?'" she says and laughs. "And I'm always like, "Oh God - no!!! We don't get to hang out with the football players. We're never supposed to fraternize with the team."

"You know, Tom Brady is actually shorter in person than he is on TV," she jokes. Still, Kristin says that Brady, Lawyer Milloy, Troy Brown and crew are indeed "people of high character" as ex-Patriot quarterback Drew Bledsoe said after his Bills team were buffaloed in a recent 38-7 loss to the Patriots.

"At the opening night gala, I met Tom Brady and Lawyer Milloy," she says. "And they seemed really nice even though we are not allowed to get into full-length conversations with them. The way they interact with all the people who were there to see them -- willing to take pictures and sign autographs..they really do seem like nice people."

Being a Patriots cheerleader is not just about kicking your heart out at football games, although Kristin admits that she is really hoping to get a chance to go the Super Bowl. There also lots of promotional events where Patriots cheerleaders work as representatives of the team.

"We get compensated for each promotion and we receive a stipend for each game," Kristin says, admitting that being a cheerleader for a professional football team will not fund her dreams of success. "This is more of a hobby for me. I don't do it for the money," she says firmly. "I didn't go into it saying, "Oh I'm going to make tons of money doing this.' It is more for my resume -- and for personal satisfaction."

And then the vibrant, dark-eyed 20-year-old, who says her true-to-Worcester heritage is Italian and Canadian-French, is quiet for a minute. "You know, you have to keep trying out every year to make the team," she says before heading off to study or work, teach or rehearse. "And I would just love to make the team again next year."