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Have Pom-Poms, Will Travel

Two Japanese women make 49ers cheerleading team

By Ethen Lieser

Ai Yusada, 25, prepares for her final audition. Photo by Ethen Lieser.

Similar to major league baseball’s invasion by quality Asian players, the San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush cheerleading team is tapping the East, too, in search of talented women who can wave pom-poms and thrust leg kicks like an NFL punter. Of the eight Japanese women who tried out for the team, only two, Tokiko Sugita and Ai Yasuda, made the final cut of 32.

“Tokiko and Ai were scored exactly the same as the other girls,” said Erin Avalos, a former Lakergirl and third-year director of the Gold Rush cheerleading team. “They both scored well and scored in the top 32.”

After finding out about the auditions through the Internet, the women entered the preliminary round of auditions that began April 21, which narrowed the 300-plus cheerleaders to approximately 70 finalists. “We judge on their dancing ability, their smile, their showmanship, and their crowd appeal,” Avalos said.

Though two Japanese women were cut after the initial round, the remaining six still held an aura of confidence as they mustered their best final audition dance moves in front of a video recorder. The women were taped because they had to return to Japan one day before the scheduled audition on April 26.

Dressed in bright-colored leotards, the women warmed up to techno and hip-hop music, synchronizing steps and turns with pinpoint accuracy. During the audition, they called to each other in Japanese, perhaps to change dance steps. But when Avalos wanted to see something different, the women communicated with her in English. Not the most fluent, but understandable, nonetheless. “Right now, we’re communicating through simple language and charades,” Avalos said. But, that might change in the future, because these women have been branded with the desire to learn English.

“My English is not perfect,” playfully pouted Yasuda, 25. “I want to get better.”

She later expressed gratitude for the kind treatment she has received in America. “Everyone treats me kind here,” she said. How? Lacking words to describe, Yasuda impersonated friendly gestures of Americans kissing on cheeks and hugging.

“I think after getting to know these girls the past couple days, they are very dedicated and they are going to learn English,” Avalos said. “They promised me they are going to learn, and I, myself, am going to learn Japanese.”

The language barrier will undoubtedly be an important issue when Sugita and Yasuda return in mid-May for the Gold Rush mini-camp. The two will live in the Bay Area for one year. But, according to Avalos, even if the cultural transitions might be difficult, the addition of two Japanese cheerleaders will reap rewards in the long run.

“I think they will take it to an international level,” she said. “It will give the other girls outside the Bay Area, or from another country, the idea that they can do this, too.” And it also takes something else to cross the Pacific, leaving friends and family behind, just for this opportunity.

“It takes a lot of guts,” Avalos said.