Perth dancer Faith Ward makes world-famous Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad after 'cutthroat and brutal' selection process
Born in New Zealand and raised in Western Australia, the 22-year-old is the first New Zealander and the third Australian to make the prestigious team for the NFL franchise.
She competed against thousands of cheerleaders for one of just six rookie spots on the 36-member cheerleading squad this NFL season.
"I thought, this is my time to reach for my dreams," she told ABC News Breakfast.
The US cheerleaders have attracted huge global fame in recent years through wildly popular Netflix docuseries America's Sweethearts.
The two seasons of the TV series tracked the gruelling selection and training processes for the official cheer squad of the world's biggest sports franchise.
Ward tried out for the team after a recruiter messaged her on Instagram.
"I was like, 'This is a fake account, this is a drill, there's no way this is happening'," she said.
"And [the recruiter] was like, 'No, we're looking for international candidates'."
The gruelling audition process sees veterans compete each year against rookie candidates to retain their spot.
"I think those athletes are hands-down some of the most hard-working people I've ever seen," Ward said.
While the Wellington-born dancer acknowledged it was a "cutthroat" and "brutal" process, she said the team's director Kelli Finglass and choreographer Judy Trammell had "warm hearts".
"They're really just wanting to see the best potential of you," she said.
"It's a hard industry to make it in and everyone wants to do it, so you've just got to push through."
Ward said just qualifying for the finals was more than she had ever dreamed of, adding she "couldn't believe it" when she discovered she'd made the team.
"I was waiting for someone to wake me up from my dream," she said.
Now the final team has been selected, preparations begin for the NFL regular season, which kicks off in September.
This includes meticulous practice of DCC's most famous dance to AC/DC's Thunderstruck, which they will perform in front of 90,000 eager fans at AT&T Stadium, the Cowboys' home ground.
"It is going to be so iconic and so surreal to be representing Australia and New Zealand," Ward said.
"It's going to make it feel like all those late nights of dance practice and training and hours I've put into my profession has paid off."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
23 minutes ago
- ABC News
Why the Dolphins-Roosters clash doubles as a Dally M showdown for Isaiya Katoa and James Tedesco
With six points on offer in every game and anonymous judges, the Dally M race has become murkier and harder to predict than ever before. But with five rounds remaining, the Dolphins-Roosters match at Lang Park on Saturday should double as the opening salvo of the final run for this year's version of rugby league's ultimate individual prize. Relying on the votes to reliably make sense is an easy way to get your heart broken, and given the judges are now anonymous, it's a game of shadows even before it goes behind closed doors. But anything less than a race to the finish between Phins halfback Isaiya Katoa and Tricolours fullback James Tedesco simply won't match up with the reality that has unfolded before us in 2025. Canberra's top contender is Joseph Tapine, but a prop has to practically walk on water to win an award like this, while Canterbury has experienced a season which has been a triumph of the many rather than one built on the excellence of the few. Despite its dynasty, Penrith is yet to win the big Dally M prize and its slow first half of the year just about ensures that streak will continue. New Zealand's Luke Metcalf led at the halfway point of the season but has since succumbed to a knee injury. Cronulla's Will Kennedy was second, but that form has been harder for him to come by in the months since, and while teammate Blayke Brailey has shined recently, his run has surely come too late. Terrell May was four points off Metcalf's lead, but the Tigers lengthy losing run will count against him, and outside the top eight there are no other contenders. Payne Haas rounded out the top five, but Origin representation and a few missed games here and there are enough to cross him out, and Brisbane's losing streak in the middle of the year won't help matters either. Melbourne's Cameron Munster is an outside chance, but the presence of Jahrome Hughes, Ryan Papenhuyzen and Harry Grant through much of the season can always drag points away. That leaves Katoa and Tedesco, two men at opposite ends of time — a young prince and an old master, the first son of tomorrow and one of the last heroes of a past age. At 21, Katoa would be the youngest Dally M winner in 40 years. At 32, Tedesco would join Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston in winning the medal again at an age when most players are slowing down. They're coming at the prize from different directions and in different ways. Katoa was equal fifth when voting went dark, fresh off a six-point haul in the Dolphins 44-6 win over Canterbury in Round 12. Metcalf's lead wouldn't have lasted much longer because the competition's youngest club started rewriting its own history by the week, with Katoa at the heart of it. They set a record for their biggest ever win in Round 13, then broke it in their very next game. In a month, the Dolphins broke 50 points more times than the Gold Coast Titans have in their entire existence, and while the points have slowed a little, the beautiful football has not. Injuries have torn apart their forward pack and are now spreading into their backline, but they are not shambling to the finish line as the parts fall away, they are speeding up to a point where their first-ever finals berth feels possible, and so much of that possibility has flowed from Katoa. His play is not singular, and it's a measure of how well-drilled and adaptable the Dolphins have become that they've sustained their level of play despite the many players they've lost along the way. Katoa is a creator and he is surrounded by finishers like Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Herbie Farnworth, or players with a bit of both in them like halves partner Kodi Nikorima and Swiss army knife Jake Averillo. The Phins middle has been ripped apart by injury, but their back row depth has proven to be outstanding with Kurt Donoghoe, Oryn Keeley and Connelly Lemuelu thriving both on the ball and off it. There's a lot of heroes at Redcliffe but the Dally M is an award for playmakers — aside from Jason Taumalolo and Cameron Smith, every winner for the past 20 years has been a half or a fullback. Katoa is the ringmaster of the Phins attacking circus, drawing the eye and directing it where he will, and that means the votes will flow like a river. He is second in the league for try assists, first in line break involvements, and first, by a huge margin, for line engagements. His trademarks — like when he looks inside to play out or when he controls the tempo of his running as he goes to line, mixing fast and slow and always equalling out to smooth — speak to his enormous sophistication as a footballer, especially for someone so young. Listen to how other players, former and current, talk about him. The tired old buzzwords — brilliant, unbelievable, freakish, a natural, a 10-year Origin player — don't do the job because Katoa demands greater detail. You have to pop the hood. "I think of the boys working in and around him, and the rewards they're getting off his style of play," Shaun Johnson said on Fox League after one Dolphins win. "He's direct, he's running the footy and he's playing at various speeds. Every element we see in the footage looks different; there's not one repetitive movement. "He's got such a variety in his tool kit, but none of it is low percentage. For a 21-year-old, 50 games experience, that's what's got me scratching my head. "The way he's balancing his game and executing — he's not overplaying. This was an 80-minute masterclass, and he was at the centre of it." The battle between his kicking game and Tedesco's positional play is where they'll cross paths the most on Saturday, and Tedesco knows what's coming because he's an unabashed fan of Katoa. "I love watching him. Some of his ball-playing, we talk about it at training, it's unbelievable," Tedesco said on the Freddy and the Eighth podcast earlier this year. "We'll come in on a Monday and say, 'See that Katoa, see that try he set up?' "It's so impressive for a young kid. Playing against him, if you slide off, he'll show and go, or play short, (but if you come up) he goes out the back. "I was talking to Cooper (Cronk) about him and he was so impressed. He's a real student of the game who loves watching and learning." Tedesco was just three points off the lead when voting was silenced and his football since has been a continuation of a great regeneration, a return to his best in defiance of what has come before. What's happening in 2025 is far from a last gasp. It's a continuation of what happened last year, when Tedesco lost out on the Dally M to Hughes by a solitary point. The Melbourne man taking the medal was the right call, but Tedesco's return to true excellence after a slower 2023 season was something to behold. He finished on a career high for tries, and set a new career high for linebreaks and try assists. He led the league in tackle busts for the fifth time in seven seasons, and was just 128 yards shy of setting a new career best mark for run metres. Tedesco's raw attacking numbers are down for 2025 because the Roosters had to retool, and there are less tries and assists to go around. The 2024 edition of Trent Robinson's side scored the sixth most tries of any team in premiership history, a level of attack that was not sustainable with the departure of Luke Keary, Joseph Manu, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and the long-term injury to Sam Walker. They had to find a way to retool and they have, and Tedesco has done it with them. He is running the ball more often later in the tackle count, acting more as a yardage weapon who provides attacking shape than out-and-out playmaker. It gives the Roosters' youngsters a strong platform to build from. The style is tougher and better suited to younger legs, but Tedesco is thriving in it. At the time of writing, he leads all fullbacks in tackle busts, total runs and run metres, and continues to find the attacking touch when called upon. After losing his Australia and New South Wales jerseys, Tedesco was meant to be over the hill, but he's steadily dragged himself back the way he came, past the generation of fullbacks who came after and were supposed to replace him, until he's back at the top again. It's a tremendous feat of evolution and adaption at an age where change can be the hardest thing of all, and another Dally M would be the capstone on the second part of his career. Like Smith or Thurston or Cronk proved before him, once a player hits the top, there's nowhere else to go, and we can grow accustomed to even the greatest wonders. Sometimes, we all need a reminder of what a truly great career looks like. For Katoa, the stakes are simpler. A Dally M win would be physical proof of what all know to already be true — that the future has arrived and his time has come. There's no way of knowing which is in the lead, but both men still have time to secure the medal, or have it slip from their grasp, which brings us back to Lang Park on Saturday night. A Dolphins win will leave the Roosters two wins out of the eight with four games remaining, which is getting perilously close to the state of mind where the phrase "mathematically possible" is invoked as proof your finals dreams are still alive. Brisbane's loss on Thursday night also opens the door for the Phins to finish as high as sixth, which would mean a home final, and that could prove an invaluable gift given Lang Park is where the light shines out of them. A Roosters win would throw the race for eighth spot wide open. The Tricolours have a tough run home, and consistency has not always been their strong suit as a unit this year, but their unpredictability and attacking class make them dangerous against anyone. This game is bigger than Katoa and Tedesco because it's a hinge on which two seasons can swing. Both men would likely be happy to trade the medal for a finals berth, but given no team from a non-finals side has won the Dally M since 2014, whoever gets it done at the Cauldron likely won't have to choose. Tedesco does not need a second Dally M to affirm his greatness, and Katoa doesn't need a first to confirm he's on the way to it. This season should be remembered as a banner one for both of them, but hardware can last in a way memory doesn't. A Katoa win, in this match and otherwise, would be a warning of what's to come, while a Tedesco victory would be a reminder of what has already been. That makes Saturday evening a point in history where two legacies collide, one just beginning with a future that stretches into the promised land, and the other with a long tail that has no end in sight.
ABC News
23 minutes ago
- ABC News
Bell Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Giveaway
Peter Evans' acclaimed production of Shakespeare's iconic tragedy Romeo and Juliet returns in 2025, featuring Madeline Li as Juliet. This emotionally charged performance promises intensity, heartbreak, and timeless romance. Tune in to ABC Radio Canberra for your chance to see the show at the Canberra Theatre Centre. Giveaway details Tune in to Breakfast on ABC Radio Canberra from Monday 11 August to find out how you can win one of five double passes to see the show. Prize details Double pass to see Romeo and Juliet at the Canberra Theatre Centre between 29 August - 7 September Visit the Canberra Theatre Centre's website to find out more. Competition terms and conditions apply.
News.com.au
23 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Former Miss Universe Jesinta Franklin wows on red carpet
One of Australia's most well known models has shown off her baby bump after annoucing her third pregnancy with AFL legend Lance 'Buddy' Franklin. The 33-year-old announced she was expecting in June this year. Franklin hit the red carpet at the MIFF Opening Night Gala at HOYTS Melbourne Central on Thursday. Franklin wore a floor length strapless dress in a pastel blue for the occasion, cradling her bump as she smiled for the cameras. Her brunette hair was styled in tight curls, and she complemented the simple look with a single silver necklace. It's been two months since the couple's pregnancy announcement, where the Miss Universe Australia 2010 winner cradled her growing baby bump while her children, Tullulah and Rocky danced around her and touched her belly. 'Tullulah and Rocky are getting a baby brother or sister for Christmas. The most beautiful surprise of all @buddy_franklin23,' Franklin captioned the clip. Franklin, formerly known as Jesinta Campbell, also took a moment to recognise that pregnancy announcements can be difficult for some. 'Our hearts are full and yet, we share this news with deep sensitivity. I know that announcements like this can be incredibly hard for those who are walking the path of infertility or loss. My heart is with you, always,' she said. Prior to the birth of their first daughter, Franklin revealed it wasn't an 'easy' road to pregnancy. When she initially announced her first pregnancy on her app, JESINTA, she said: 'The journey to get here hasn't been easy and this little life is the greatest gift and we feel truly blessed and grateful that we will have a little angel of our own. 'We have both dreamt of this for a long time and while the last 2.5 years have been physically and emotionally challenging, there's nothing we would change as it's brought us to this beautiful moment. At the time, she also revealed that she and her husband had been 'trying for years and years' to conceive, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. In a follow-up post to her announcement, she revealed that her pregnancy had been a 'rough time'. 'Sadly I'm not someone who thrives when they are pregnant,' she said. Many — included fellow model Natalie Roser — rushed to congratulate the couple on the news of their third child. 'Beautiful. Congratulations,' Roser said. Meanwhile, comedian Celeste Barber said; 'Now THIS is a pregnancy announcement.' Australian singer and former Neighbours star Bonnie Anderson left a series of hearts on the clip. The couple recently celebrated eight years of marriage, tying the knot in November 2016 before welcoming their first child in February 2020. The pair's love story got off to a rough start. After getting her number from a friend in 2012, Buddy was met with rejection when he texted his now wife out of the blue. 'I was like, 'Um, I'm not dating at the moment. I'm dating my career'. Cringe! Oh my God, I can't believe I said that,' Franklin told Beauticate in 2017. However, he managed to convince her to take a chance and the couple had their first date at Sydney's Crown Hotel Bar.
