Playing Through

Rhonda Robinson (Photo by Thomas Hackett)

The global economy may be in free fall, but there's nothing a little pep can't cure.

OK, I don't actually believe that. Yet there was something altogether heartening about the dozen or so young women who auditioned last weekend to cheer for the Austin Turfcats.

Never heard of the Turfcats? I hadn't either. But they're a start-up team in a start-up league – the Southern Indoor Football League, consisting of six squads, unaffiliated with the Arena Football League. If you go to the Turfcats website and check out the team roster, you'll see pictures of only two players. With the season starting April 18, we can assume they'll be filling out the roster in the next few weeks. Even if they don't, I'm not particularly worried, knowing that the organization already has a full litter of turf kittens. Ten of them – women with other jobs and other responsibilities who are nevertheless determined to entertain the multitudes for next to no money.

Take Rhonda Robinson, 21. She's a single mom of a 3-year-old girl. She's attending two colleges. She drives a city bus. For all that, she felt there was something missing in her life. After high school, she and some friends formed a dance squad, making up little hip-hop routines. But that wasn't quite the same as dancing professionally in front of a big crowd.

"I just want to get back into the dancing business," she told me. "I have the cheerleader smile – a big cheesy grin – and I have a lot of spirit. Once you put me in front of a bunch of people, I'm a different person."

Yet when she showed up for the tryouts Saturday, Robinson got cold feet. She had paid the $50 audition fee, filled out the application, got into her tights – and then took one self-critical look in the mirror. "I was like: 'I'm too fat. I'm the only one with a jiggly belly. I shouldn't be doing this.'"

Honestly, I have no idea why Robinson was so worried. She's lovely – and she's right about that killer smile.

As one girl after another was picked for the squad while she just sat there, Robinson tried to take solace in the fact that, even if she didn't make the cut, she had still worked up her courage and gone through with the audition. Jiggly belly or no jiggly belly, she'd put herself out there. The night before, she'd spent hours practicing the routine in front of her daughter. And even though she sort of messed up at the end, she'd given it her all. She couldn't ask any more of herself than that.

It came down to just her and one other girl. One of them would get the boot.

"The whole time I was saying a prayer: 'God, please just give me another chance. I'd like to do this. I'll be good at this.'"

Finally, they called her number. "I didn't care that I was the last girl to make the team – I was just so happy."