Millard North alumna and Midland graduate Paige Riley got her first taste dancing for an NFL team in the Jacksonville Jaguars during the preseason.
Riley was one of 10 rookies selected to join the Jaguars’ cheerleader squad in May.
The team held a scrimmage on Aug. 1 to prepare for the team’s first game. They have a rotation in which four rookies are on the field at a time. Riley got to participate in the pregame routine and considers it a surreal feeling.
“I literally have no words to describe how amazing that was and how awesome of a feeling that was to be able to do the pregame,” Riley told Hurrdat Sports. “Just being on the field for the first time, doing the player intro, I literally have no words to tell you how amazing it was. It was truly, truly everything.”
Riley began dancing at On Pointe Dance Center Omaha when she was 10, then transferred to Nebraska Dance when she got to high school.
Riley didn’t make the dancer or cheer team during her first two years of high school, then the COVID-19 pandemic took away her opportunity as an upperclassman. She attended Midland University in college and decided to try out for the dance team there, making the cut. She danced all four years on the game day squad and was an alternate on the competition team her sophomore and junior years.
During her sophomore year, Riley was talking with a friend, and they brought up the idea of Riley dancing for a pro team. That same friend later took her to a Detroit Lions preseason football game, and from there, the dream was born.
“We sat right in front of the cheerleaders, so I could see what an NFL cheer team looked like,” Riley said. “From that moment in the library, and especially that moment of seeing the cheerleaders on the field, I knew that was something that I really wanted to work hard to do.”
The tryout process is a long one with nearly 200 people competing for a spot on the team of 30. It’s a months-long process that begins with preliminaries where the team sends each person trying out a video of choreography for them to memorize and perform in front of the judges. Those that get a call back execute a longer version of the same routine that same day, with finals to follow. Prior to finals, there are two practices for the finalist to learn the routine that they will showcase in front of the judges along with a solo of their choice.
In order to prepare for professional dancing, Riley signed up for a program called Pro Focus created by former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Jennifer Amburn. The class originally began to teach dancers in Dallas but eventually grew worldwide. Amburn teaches the girls the skill sets it take to dance professionally along with interview strategies.
Riley has always loved the beach, and so Amburn recommended ROAR of the Jaguars, Jacksonville’s cheerleader squad.
“I really wanted to move to Florida specifically,” Riley said. “I’ve just kind of always had a soft spot for Florida in my heart, ever since I was little.”
Riley’s friend’s suggestion of going pro lingered in her mind long after that conversation in the library, and she just knew that the music couldn’t stop yet.
“It was one of those, I don’t want to say movie moment, but kind of,” Riley said. “Where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, really?’ Literally from that moment on, I knew that there was nothing else I truly wanted to do after college besides work really hard to be a professional cheerleader for the NFL specifically.”
At the team’s first preseason game, the team got posters that they signed and handed out to children that came to watch the game. As a young child, Riley looked up to older cheerleaders, so she loved getting to make a young child’s day.
“It was so much fun. I really enjoyed interacting with the fans,” Riley said. “It reminded me a lot of when I was a little kid; I would want cheerleaders’ signatures and things like that. So it was a really full-circle moment, being in this position of like, ‘Wow, now I’m the cheerleader and now there’s little kids asking this from me.’”
The team’s game in London and the home opener where her mom will be in attendance are the events that Riley’s most excited for this season. She is very close with her family, so moving to Florida, is a big change. However, last summer, she spent a few months in Milan, which she believes helped get her ready her for this move.
“Venturing outside of Nebraska was definitely something that I knew I wanted to do to go pro, but it’s never been a big desire for me to move super far away,” Riley said. “But I knew it was something I had to do to achieve my dreams.”
Riley always loved to dance, but she didn’t know is she could make it a career.
“I truly think younger Paige would have no words to describe how impressed, how excited, and how thrilled she is that I made it here,” Riley said “I truly think young Paige would have just been starstruck.”
Spending time getting to know her teammates is what Riley’s looking forward to the most.
“I just truly think all of the girls on the team are absolutely amazing, and to have that incredible bond and sisterhood of just amazing women is such an experience that you cannot describe.”
Riley will perform on the field during the Jaguars’ season opener against the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 7.
