Ultimate Cheerleaders (The First Five Years)

LAWRENCEBURG - Even with the limited brand of free agency allowed in the National Football League, star players swap teams almost as often as Peyton Manning throws for 300 yards.

So why shouldn’t the cheerleaders switch sidelines, too?

Lawrenceburg sweetheart Seazun Clark, now 27, the Cincinnati Ben-Gals’ cheer captain and volunteer choreographer from 1999-2002, will do exactly that when she makes her debut wearing Indianapolis Colts blue and white next Saturday, Aug. 6, in Tokyo, Japan, of all places.

The Colts - who announced Clark as part of their 40-member cheerleader squad for 2005-06 back on May 12, following tryouts by over 300 women in April - will play the Atlanta Falcons in the American Bowl, both teams’ preseason opener, scheduled to kick off at 4 a.m. local time. Holy International Dateline!

“It’s really exciting,” said the vivacious Clark, whose only previous trip away from the mainland USA came when she was named Miss Pro Bowl 2003 while representing the Bengals at the postseason all-star game in Honolulu.

“I’ll always love the Bengals,” she added. “I just needed to take a year off to finish up my college degree. I needed to stand back and take a look at everything, to try and keep a balance between work and cheering. I met a Colts cheerleader at the Pro Bowl who told me I ought to be cheering for them. They’ve been really nice and they have a really great dance program. They do a lot for the community. It’s just self-growth, really.”

Clark, who graduated from Northern Kentucky University with a bachelor’s degree in social work last August, actually tried out for the NBA’s Indiana Pacemates the summer after leaving the Ben-Gals. But she backed off after discovering that the Pacers’ busy schedule, sometimes with as many as three home games per week, practice and promotional events, just wasn’t feasible.

“The NBA is very involved,” she noted. “I’d have had to move to Indianapolis to make it work. With the Colts, I’m able to commute three times a week for now, with home games every other weekend from August through December.”

Starting out as a Lawrenceburg Pee Wee football cheerleader in sixth grade, Clark went on to become a four-year yell leader and squad captain in high school. Briefly enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, she was a member of UC’s Bearkitten dance team. She made the Ben-Gals on her first tryout in 1999.
Still a hometown gal, as well as one of the most personable individuals you’ll ever meet, Seazun Clark - the daughter of former LHS cheerleader Tracey (Weber) Smith and Lee Clark, granddaughter of Kermit and Barb Weber and Sharon Clark - currently works as an administrative assistant at Cincinnati’s Setco, Ind., toolmaking firm.

Single guys will be happy to know that she’s no longer romantically linked with former middleweight boxing champion Fernando Vargas, whom Clark met while on a Ben-Gal junket to Las Vegas back in 2000. “We’re still friends,” she admits.

Clark’s overriding motivation for getting back into cheerleading is simple and basic. “Right now, I still feel that dance is my passion,” she says. “It’s a great outlet for your energy and emotions. Ultimately, I’d like to pursue it professionally, in the TV or film industry.”

Following along with that dream, Clark didn’t exactly remain idle while finishing up her college work over the past couple of years. She found time to dance with a 10-member hip-hop group - dubbed Fully-Loaded, after the acrobatic The Matrix movies - for a Showtime at the Apollo TV show regional competition at Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center last year. They won first prize.

“We had five girls and five boys in the group,” Clark said. “Some of our members are out in California right now, dancing on tour with Destiny’s Child.


Source: the Dearborn County Register

Labels: Bengals, Colts, NBA, NFL