Military Appreciation Night by Chris Beveridge
In preparation for Sunday’s big and final home game of the season against the LA Galaxy (widely and popularly known as “David Beckham’s team”), I thought I’d change things up a bit and profile a girl off the field rather than a guy on the field.
In sort of a True Life-meets-Real World kind of way, here’s a sneak peak at the life of Blanca Guerrero – talking about all things Dynamo Girl and some things not.
After hanging out with Guerrero and peeking into one of their practices, boy do I feel like the Heidi Montag of the world (stupid, idiotic, mislead, etc.). For whatever beguiled reason, I pictured these girls huddled up making glittery “G-O D-Y-N-A-M-O!” posters, practicing the art of fishtail-braids and perfecting their synchronized claps.
In no capacity did I envision repeated sprints, weight training and definitely not burpees. It was like a sequestered CrossFit camp with 20 girls in perfect shape bouncing around in sports bras and sweating to the beat of their love for soccer.
Yes, exactly like every single guy’s fantasy — but these girls have a purpose.
Blanca. Photo Courtesy of Quy Ngo
This is Guerrero’s fifth season as a Dynamo Girl (DG), her third as a captain, and she is only one of two remaining girls still on the squad from the first season. All impressive stats indeed, but it’s what goes into being a DG that makes her worth talking about. Not to mention those ridiculously toned abs and high-wattage smile that gets her additional points.
Organization is the key
Guerrero explained that aside from the traditional halftime and sideline dances and cheers we’re all accustomed to, there is so much more that goes into maintaining appearances and the status of being a DG.
The girls have multiple practices each week that usually last four hours (from 6:30-10:30 p.m. to accommodate everyone’s work and school schedules) learning and perfecting new choreography, strength and conditioning workouts, active involvement in the community, going over appearance schedules and other monotonous tasks to keep the girls on track and in shape. This is their repetitive schedule for about nine months out of the year from the time of tryouts in February to the end of the season which we all hope lasts into playoffs in November.
Blanca spends her days from 8 to 5 as a customer service rep processing orders and ensuring everything goes as planned remedying any hiccups along the way, which sounds an awful lot like what she does as captain. Her duties as captain not only consist of cleaning up the choreography to ensure it’s ready for game day, but also things like processing and updating excel spreadsheets. Yes, being a DG captain requires a computer and a few Microsoft Office products.
Dynamo Girls. Photo courtesy of Quy Ngo
“We have so many appearances to keep track of and I try to rotate the girls through all the fun events. At the end of the year, the girls are required to attend at least 20 appearances so I have a spreadsheet that I have to keep updating to track it all. It’s a very important part of our job because each girl must be in good standing in order to try out again next year,” Guerrero explains.
And yes, that means everyone goes through the tryout process every year, she adds. It’s a way to keep things fresh and keep the girls on their toes.
Intense schedule
Aside from all her DG practices and appearances this week already, Guerrero’s intense schedule looks like this:
Monday – Woke up at 6:30 a.m., went to work from 8-5 (where she spent her lunch break grocery shopping). After work she headed straight to CrossFit in Katy where her workout of the day (WOD) was four rounds for time of: 400 meter run, 30 box jumps on a 20” box, and seven power snatches with a 50-pound bar, where she clocked an impressive time of 20:15.
Then she headed home to cook chicken fajitas with grilled squash for her and her husband. (They try to follow a Paleo diet which consists of eating lean meats, lots of veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds which also explains her great physique.)
Tuesday – Woke up at 4:50 a.m. to do a CrossFit workout from 5:30-6:30 where her WOD was five rounds of rowing 500 meters and running 400 meters. She finished with a time of 29:55 (which counts both her and her partner’s time). Then she headed off to work from 8-5 and, afterwards, immediately went to DG practice at the University of Houston followed by a trip to the grocery store and home, where she cooked another healthy meal.
Wednesday – Woke up at 7 a.m. and headed straight to work another 8-5 day. Then headed to CrossFit “to get beat up again” as she puts it. This time she didn’t tell me her WOD, presumably because she’s exhausted. Then she headed home to cook some homemade baked wings and sweet potato fries.
Exhausted and just getting fatter following her days, I finally asked her what she did over the weekend. She told me Saturday was family day which consisted of an Open House at the fire station where her husband volunteers and on Sunday, she FINALLY took a rest day. She found some time to unwind from a busy and brutal week and prepare for another one. At least the girl takes some kind of break!
Be sure to keep a lookout for Blanca on Sunday as the Dynamo try to defeat the LA Galaxy and work their way into a home field advantage for the playoffs.
This article was featured on Culture Map, Houston’s Daily Digital Magazine in the sport’s section.
