Our first Jill of The Month feature is on the girl who, the past several years, has become the face of the squad. Christina R works in Human Resources away from the Jills but with the Jills, she’s been putting her degree in Communications to work for her with features on BuffaloBills.com every spring during tryouts. She’s also been doing that kind of work behind the scenes at the end of the season by putting together season-end DVDs filled with photos and videos from Fisher Creative Image Photography and the Buffalo Pro Cheer Blog for the entire squad to receive at their year-end banquet.
It was pretty obvious early in her rookie season that she was going to leave a large mark on the squad. That season, in 2006, the Buffalo Jills had a select group of 6 Jills who would perform at all their big events and Christina was the lone rookie in that group. A Pro Bowl following the 2009 season and the cover of the 2011-12 Buffalo Jills Swimsuit Calendar later, and she’s not done making her mark. At the end of the 2009 season, a pair of Jills were recognized before the game for their ten years on the squad together. Eileen and Omarlla started their careers together in the 2000 season and while Eileen retired after her 11th season, Omarlla is still going strong in her 13th. What does this have to do with Christina, you may ask? In 2008, Valerie, the other 7th year vet on the Buffalo Jills this year, told me that she and Christina were going to be the next Omarlla and Eileen as far as longevity. Time will tell if they do put in that many years together but even if they don’t, seven years is an impressive career when you consider that the average career of a Buffalo Jills Cheerleader is just over two years.
When a lot of people think about cheerleaders, they don’t think of them as real students on the game. They face the crowd and away from the action a lot during the games and, generally stationed at the ten-yard lines during games, they don’t get the best view of the action. Even when it’s on their end of the field, there are tons of cameras in front of them blocking their view. However, that’s a bit of a misconception as some girls over the years have shown their displeasure over the team struggling when they weren’t performing…so they were definitely paying attention. Even the girls who are able to disguise their displeasure are among those who wait in the tunnel area watching the final moments of the game if the outcome is in doubt. However, Christina takes it to a new level. When fans attend training camp, it’s partly to see friends that they might only see during football season and partly to watch the team. When members of the Buffalo Jills make an appearance at camp, they’re generally away from the fields and not only don’t get to see practice while working but frequently leave after their shift is over. Christina, however, takes advantage of an appearance at training camp differently than most of her squadmates. If she gets to do an appearance at camp, she usually switches into street clothes at the end of her shift and joins her boyfriend in the stands so that she can get a look at the team herself and give her an idea what to expect from certain players once the games begin.
Read more about Christina at http://buffalojills.com/profile.php?PID=77
