By Alan Sorensen
David Quick has aspired to a major league baseball career since his school days in Havre.
But it was younger sister Trish who showed she was the quicker Quick when it came to big time sports.
David, a 1993 Havre High School graduate, pursued a path he hoped would lead him to major league baseball by signing on to pitch for the University of Arizona Wildcats. He graduated last spring and is now under contract to an independent league professional baseball team in Johnstown, Pa.
Trish, a 1996 graduate who had been a cheerleader throughout her middle school and high school years in Havre, had an entirely different career in mind. She moved to Phoenix in November 1996 with aspirations of earning a degree in computer information systems.
Then, as a student at DeVry Institute, she got slightly sidetracked when she went to an Arizona Cardinals home game against the Dallas Cowboys.
I went because I wanted to see the Cowboys, Quick said in a telephone interview. I saw the cheerleaders and it kind of looked fun to me. I got home and made some phone calls and got in touch with the coach.
The next spring, Quick showed up for the Cardinal cheerleader tryouts.
Tryouts were in April, she said. I went and tried out and made it.
And then the real work began for Quick, who had been selected as a cheerleader for the 1996 Montana East-West Shrine Football Game at the end of her high school career.
We start practicing the end of May, she said. We practice twice a week in June and July. In August, we practice five times a week, getting ready for preseason games. And once the season starts, its back to twice a week, and we practice until the last game.
Each practice runs from 6 to about 10 p.m., Quick said. And because the Cardinals play their home games in the outdoor stadium at Arizona State University in Tempe, the cheerleaders conduct their practices outside.
Its 110 or 113 (degrees Fahrenheit) outside in the summer, and were out there practicing, she said. We have to get used to that heat. The field sometimes during a game gets to 115 in that stadium.
They cheer at 10 home games, including exhibition games, during the season.
Every game we do different routines, she said. About 20 routines a game and theyre never the same.
She said they also have to relearn cheers from previous years as the season progresses. We always have to be on our toes.
Havre fans had their best chance to catch Quick cheering the Cardinals on already this year. The Cardinals hosted the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football Sept. 28. They followed that up by hosting the Washington Redskins on an ESPN Sunday evening game Oct. 17.
Its exciting when youre standing on the field and standing two feet away from people youve been watching on TV for years, she said.
The Cardinals lost both TV games by the identical scores of 24 to 10.
An ad that aired this week for NFL This Morning on Fox Sport Network showed a brief close-up of a blond Cardinal cheerleader who appeared to be Quick leading a cheer.
The cheerleaders only cheer at home games, but they are called upon to appear at a number of other activities, too.
We do a lot of appearances throughout the valley, we do a lot of promotional things for the Cardinals, like FanFest, Quick said. Players and cheerleaders are there, and there are activities for kids winning stuff, raffles, autographs, a big day for about four hours.
FanFest is held at different places at different times throughout the Phoenix valley. I got to do an appearance at the Phoenix Open and that was a lot of fun, Quick said. Tiger Woods was there.
While big-time athletes make big-time money, though, big-time cheerleaders dont even make a living wage. As a result, Quick had to drop out of school and take a full-time job with an investment banking firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Id like this to open up opportunities for me, but I just want to finish school first, Quick said. I had originally gone to DeVry for computer information systems, but Im thinking of getting into business, now. Im looking forward to getting back into school and picking a major.
Quick won a 1995 Ford Escort during the 1996 HHS senior weekend graduation party. I actually still have it, she said.
Quick can be found on the Cardinals web site, azcardinals.com, along with about 15 other cheerleaders. Some have biographies and swimsuit pictures along with their cheerleading photos. The others, including Quick, are scheduled to be updated soon.
We actually turned in our biographies last night at practice, Quick said in a telephone interview Nov. 3. We started out with 28 (cheerleaders), and now we have 27.
The number one rule for the cheerleaders, Quick said, is to refrain from fraternizing with the players and other team employees.
They kind of distance us from the team except for at (public) appearances, she said. Then we might be at the same table or things.
Their parents, Larry and Dolly Quick, moved from Havre to Tucson after Trishs graduation. Their little sister, Kristi, graduated from high school in Tucson last spring.
Their aunt, Sharon Weigel, and their maternal grandparents, Don and Ramona Anderson, still live in Havre.
