SAN DIEGO HOST : SuperBowl XXII : 88 88s in ’88 : Students Picked for Super Bowl Show Get a Taste of the ‘Chorus Line’ Life

When watching previous Super Bowls on television, Megan Haggerty always wondered how the performers in the pregame and halftime shows were picked.

Now she knows. The ninth-grade drill team member from Crawford High School is one of more than 500 San Diego County dance and cheerleading students selected for the game’s entertainment extravaganzas. From Oceanside to Chula Vista and from Mission Bay to Ramona, the students--selected after exhausting all-day auditions several weeks ago--have been practicing at various locations during weekday evenings and on weekends for the shows.

All of them feel exhilarated to be part of the Super Bowl, whether they will be participants or alternates. Parents and relatives coast to coast have been alerted to videotape the shows for posterity. The only down note comes from in-town family, disappointed that selection for the entertainment segments does not include tickets to the game.

“I was really surprised to be picked,” said ninth-grader Marisa McClanahan of Gompers Secondary School, one of three students from that school in the halftime show. “I think it was basically because we were smiling and laughing the whole time. (The show’s talent coordinators) said later that they were looking for people with nice smiles.”

McClanahan, along with schoolmates Erica Malone and Charlotta Taylor, are members of the school’s two-year-old drill team. Team adviser Sharletta Richardson encouraged the entire team to try out during auditions at Patrick Henry High School.

“We did the same step over and over and over all day,” Malone said. She and Taylor, both 13-year-old eighth-graders, are among the youngest participants on Super Bowl Sunday.

“But we stayed around, and (got over) being really nervous after a while because we found that no one else there really knew the step either.”

Added Taylor: “After a while, we started laughing a little because we were (all in the same boat).”

Dance on Pianos

The halftime show will feature 88 dancers on top of grand pianos in a 20-minute presentation called “Something Grand,” along with the famous professional Rockettes from Radio City Music Hall in New York, which is choreographing the show.

So far, the students haven’t tried their routines on top of the pianos, but instead are practicing on wooden cutouts in the shape of the pianos.

“I guess I worry a little about messing up but not very much,” McClanahan said. “We’re practicing an awful lot and the (choreographers) are really strict.” Added Malone: “When they say practice, you practice.”

At Crawford, Haggerty is one of six students scheduled to appear in the halftime show. In addition, nine others from Billie Getter’s drill team and cheerleading class are among the almost 300 dancers practicing for a separate pregame tribute to comedian Bob Hope.

“It’s not any harder from (what we do) at Crawford, but it’s a lot different,” sophomore Vickie Ades said of the practices.

“The choreographers expect you to know the step, you’ve got to pick up on what they are doing really quick,” sophomore Marlea Mael added.

For all the students, the experience has already taught them a lot about the real world of entertainment.

“It really is like (the play) ‘Chorus Line,”’ Crawford senior Alicia Helms said, referring to the musical about the trials and tribulations of chorus line applicants. “You have to catch on real fast, and you were picked out (for selection) just like in the play.

“And the choreographers are from New York and used to doing things really fast.”

None of that will really matter on Jan. 31, however.

“The Super Bowl doesn’t come to San Diego every year,” sophomore Jessica Sandoval said to the nods of others.