Heather's Coin Toss
Adam J Locascio
Friday May 6, 2005
As unlikely and improbable as it may seem, sometimes that’s the easiest way to decide things. When we were kids, we all had to toss a coin in order to settle a dispute.
Heather didn’t think her spot on the Tampa Bay Storm Cheerleading Squad would come down to a coin toss when she donned her tights a year ago.
Before the 2004 season, Heather was a fresh face to the Storm Cheerleading tryouts. She had been dancing for various dance teams throughout her life, but this was her first opportunity to dance professionally.
Ninety girls attended the tryout at the University of South Florida and after several rounds of cuts, Heather found herself in the finals. One more round of cuts and she was in; a member of the team.
But that round of cuts was not easy.
After all of the girls performed, the squad’s choreographers adjourned to the back room to tally up the votes of the judges and make their decision as to which 18 girls would make the squad.
Kindra Strocher and Caroline Wiren had been in this position before. Selecting 18 girls is never easy, especially when they are all doing the same dance. But even though they had been in this position, they had not been in a position such as this one.
They had 19 girls worthy of making the squad. Eighteen spots. Someone was going to be left out.
The girls at the tryout had to have been getting nervous. Strocher and Wiren were in the back room of Banana Joe’s, a local Channelside nightspot, for almost a half an hour, which no doubt seemed like an eternity to the girls awaiting their fate.
What was happening in the back room was tense. Strocher and Wiren, who had been co-workers for years with both the Storm and the USF Sun Dolls, were strained to their limits. They had decided on 17 of the girls.
Two were left. One was Heather.
They could not hide in the back room forever. Strocher and Wiren had to make a decision.
Out came the penny.
The choice was between Heather and Juliann, another first-year dancer.
It was heads. Juliann won.
Unfortunately for Heather, her name wasn’t read that night. Although she knew she performed well, she could not help but feel disappointed.
"I know you can’t disappoint your family when you try your best, but I really felt like I let people down because I had everyone’s hopes up," said Heather.
At the time, she had no idea what was happening behind the scenes.
Several days later, Heather received a phone call from Strocher. It turns out that Heather was selected as an alternate. This meant that if any of the girls chose to leave the team, Heather would join the squad.
Low and behold, one of the girls had to leave the squad and Heather was in. It was a little unceremonious, but she was on the squad.
Heather got to meet her coin-toss competition shortly after joining the 2004 squad. Juliann was told the whole story upon joining the squad on the night of the finals.
"She came up to me and handed me the penny," said Heather. "She said, ‘They gave me this penny after the tryouts. You’re my twin. They had to flip a coin over us.’ That brought [my spirits] back up."
The cosmic connection between Juliann and Heather continued into 2005 as during their tryout for this year’s squad, the two danced together for the judges. This time, no coin toss was needed. Both made the squad.
They also have had a little fun with their coaches.
"Right before tryouts, I gave [a penny] to Kindra and [Juliann] gave one to Caroline," said Heather.
Heather left little to chance this year. She came out in front of the judges in a retro-eighties hot pink leotard and leg warmers. At one point, she even let loose with a boisterous "GO STORM!" directed at the coaches and judges.
"I just tried to have fun with it," she said of her 2005 tryout.
This year, she left nothing to chance.
Adam J. Locascio is a financial advisor in the Tampa Bay area and a Board Member of the Tampa Bay Storm Surge Fan Club. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and is a six-year season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Storm.
