Q with Sadie Landrieu – LSU Cheerleader
Known for revving up the Tiger Stadium crowd with their ferocious spirit, the LSU cheerleaders are a football mainstay brimming with four quarters of energy. Fashion merchandising senior Sadie Landrieu discusses what it’s like to keep that smile on her face and the young fans who adore her.
What’s your interaction like with LSU fans? Are you approached by young girls who say they want to be like you?
Yeah, all the time. The most that happens is during the parade before the game. We have a five-minute period where the coaches say to mingle.
You find at least five little girls who are wearing an LSU cheerleading uniform. So it’s really fun to talk to those little girls, and they just light up when you wave to them. I’ll take pictures with them and let them hold my pom-poms. That’s probably the most fun—when we get to see how much they look up to us. We’re like a celebrity in their eyes, and we’re only college students.
Does your mouth ever hurt from having to smile for so long?
Yes, that, and my knuckles always hurt because I’m constantly squeezing the pom-poms. So a lot of the time my knuckles are cramped up and sweating. Usually that happens when the news cameras come and ask us to form a semicircle and cheer and say “Go Tigers!” We have to keep it going for a few minutes, and our cheeks are throbbing from smiling so much. I feel like the adrenaline energizes me enough to forget about it, but my legs are like noodles at the end.
How do you recover from a stunt when someone falls?
Basically you act like it went perfect. If someone falls, or a guy drops you, you just talk about it at practice later. You keep going as if nothing happened. Our coaches write down every stunt that fails, and at the next practice, we have to do it five times in a row before practice starts. We’re supposed to look perfect and have no flaws, and in the moment we just recuperate and put a smile on our faces.
Follow Landrieu on Twitter for the inside scoop on LSU cheerleading @SadieLandrieu.
