By RACHEL HARRIS

NEW ORLEANS – A quintet of River Parishes dancers were chosen for the official NFL Saintsations team for the 2002 football season.

New members Michelle Boudreaux, Mandy Schexnaydre and Alana Weber joined veteran members Brooke Crocker and Melanie Wester in May after a three-week tryout including multiple dance performances and interviews.

This year’s focus is to serve as positive role models for the community, Choreographer Elizabeth Portwood said. The Saintsations are required to complete 20 unpaid appearances along with their minimum four hours per week dedicated to practices and all home football games.

Crocker, a three-year veteran from LaPlace, said she is honored to impact the community positively by not only reforming cheerleaders, but women. Crocker is a junior at Tulane University, majoring in communications and business. She plans to pursue broadcasting or public relations.

Crocker’s favorite appearance in 2001 was Cookie Monster’s birthday party at Children’s Hospital.

“The children view us as celebrities. They get to forget they are in the hospital for one day,” she said. “The smiles we put on their faces makes me feel like I’m making a difference.”

Wester, a Luling resident, said she was inspired to join the team by dance teacher Samantha Sidwell, a veteran Saintsation. Wester was a cheerleader in high school and danced for 15 years. She said she just did not want to stop dancing and jumped at the opportunity to join the Saintsations.

Wester’s family is now full of Saints season ticket holders, she said.

“My mother cried and cried both times I made it,” Wester said. “It’s NFL cheerleading. It’s really an accomplishment.”

Wester attends the University of New Orleans, majoring in communications, and she is a two-year veteran of the dance team.

Boudreaux, a resident of St. Rose, joined the squad after 14 years of dancing and seven years of teaching dance. She said she was also influenced by Sidwell, who was one of her dance teachers.

Boudreaux presently attends Delgado Community College in New Orleans. She is majoring in business administration and plans to attend Southeastern University in Hammond in the fall of 2003. She is currently employed at East Jefferson General Hospital.

“Born in Louisiana, I was a natural-born Saints fan,” Boudreaux said. “I’ve always wanted to be a Saintsation.”

Schexnaydre, a fellow St. Rose resident, said reaching the NFL level is the ultimate step in her dancing career.

“After making the team, someone told me that making Saintsations is the major leagues of dancing,” she said. “That’s when it hit me.”

Schexnaydre said she could not get enough of performing on the football field with her high school dance team. She missed the experience and felt like something was missing when it ended.

“It’s a dream come true. I feel like that missing piece is back,” she said.

Schexnaydre is a student at Loyola University in New Orleans, majoring in communications and business.

Weber, of Destrehan, said she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her mother, a member of the first Saints dance team, the Mam’selles, in the late 1960s.

Weber survived a bad car accident in 1998 and went through more than a year of reconstructive surgeries and rehabilitation before she reached a turn-around in her life and physical condition.

“It’s been a dream come true,” she said. “I feel like I’ve succeeded. I don’t think I could get any higher.”

Weber is a senior at Louisiana State University and is majoring in economics. She hopes to work as a financial analyst upon graduation. She is currently employed by The Relocation Center.

The Saintsations perform at all Sunday Saints games in the Louisiana Superdome and take part in numerous community service events like Relay for Life and Dress to Success. The Saintsations Calendar is scheduled to be published prior to the beginning of football season. It will be available in bookstores and will be sold by Saintsations.

Featured in the calendar are 18 team members, including Schexnaydre and Wester.