Foster Auditorium is bustling with around 40 nervous, excited girls going through the motions of their routines and stretching as they prepare to audition. Foster’s hallways are filled with mirrors, and the girls sit in front of them, rolling their hair and doing their makeup. Friends and family fill the seats, waiting to cheer on their daughter, sister or friend. Each girl has prepared for this day six months to a year in advance, and each one of them has one goal: to be a University of Alabama Crimsonette.
This will be Courtney Dover’s fifth year as a Crimsonette, and though she has made it every year, it still gives her butterflies. She still remembers trying out her first year.
“It was Crimsonette or nothing else,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine leaving without that T-shirt on.”
Dover is not alone. Her friend and teammate of five years, Hannah Ray, only applied to Alabama. Her parents asked her if she would like to try out anywhere else, but when it came time to fill out applications, she knew she only wanted to be a Crimsonette.
Ray said though her first year was the most stressful and intense, there is still pressure each year because she wants to do better.
“You never want people to second guess you, your abilities or what you can do,” she said. “So you are always trying to work hard and be better and better the next year. You are trying to outdo yourself.”
The Crimsonettes are an auxiliary of the Million Dollar Band, and they dance and twirl during the pregame and halftime shows. They are best known for their glittering, sequined costumes, white go-go boots, big curled hair and bright red lipstick. Few women haven’t wished they could wear the Crimsonette uniform at least once.
However, the beautiful, glittering costumes do not come cheap.
Each costume is custom fit and handmade by Sheryl Wilds, and they cost more than $1,000. Wilds, who owns Sheryl’s Custom Sewing, has been making the costumes for the Crimsonettes for 21 years. The girls get a new design every two years. Wilds said the styles have varied over the years and become more and more elaborate. Currently, they are made of liquid sequined fabric embellished with 2,000 real Austrian Swarovski crystal stones.
“That’s where all that glimmer comes from,” Wilds said.
Crimsonette coach Marion Powell was a Crimsonette in the 1970s and has been coaching the team since she graduated from the University. Powell said the costumes have evolved a lot over the years. Some of the first costumes didn’t have any sequins or stones on them at all. Now there are almost too many to count.
Wilds comes to the girls’ tryouts, and after the team is announced, each girl is measured so that the costume fits them perfectly.
“She is amazing, and it’s amazing that they are so elaborate because they are custom-made,” Ray said.
Both Dover and Ray can remember the first time they put on the Crimsonette uniform freshman year.
“I remember when I was a freshman, putting on the costume for the first time. It’s just like a moment of ‘Oh my gosh, I am officially a Crimsonette,’” Dover said.
One of the signature trimmings on the costumes is the “Bama” written on the back above the rear.
“I remember when I first got my costume at Ms. Wilds’,” Ray said. “I turned to my dad and said, ‘I’ve waited my whole life to have Bama on my butt!’”
Powell said one costume is furnished this year by the University, but the girls have a course fee they pay that covers additional items such as halftime costumes, rehearsal attire, boots and everything else.
The Crimsonette uniform is a big part of what gameday is for Dover and Ray. The girls said they couldn’t imagine what it will be like to attend a game after Crimsonettes.
“I mean, one day we are going to have to have a gameday dress, and we joke sometimes, what would it even be like to be a normal student?” Dover said. “As band members, we are so different. Gameday is Crimsonettes and Million Dollar Band.”
For the Crimsonettes, gameday begins early and is a different experience than the average student’s.
The girls start off every Saturday morning in the fall practicing with the Million Dollar Band. They do a two- to two-and-half-hour run-through of pre-game and the halftime show. Often, fans, friends and family members come to watch, and the girls have a practice uniform just for gamedays. After practice, the primping begins.
Most of the time, the girls go home to get ready on their own, but if it’s an early home game or away game, they get ready together. They roll their hair, put on their signature red lipstick and ensure their white boots are shining before heading to the stadium to drop off their bags. The Crimsonettes then get ready for Elephant Stomp, the pregame pep rally on the steps of Gorgas Library, all the while smiling for pictures taken by eager fans.
“One day we were those little girls wanting to be a Crimsonette and saying, ‘Oh my gosh there’s a Crimsonette. Let’s go have our picture with her,’” Dover said. “So now we get to be the people who they look up to now. So that’s really cool.”
Following the pep rally, the band marches from the Quad to the stadium, where fans are lined up cheering them on. After that, it’s time to stretch and get ready for 10 minutes of pregame. Though it is their fifth year of twirling, Dover’s and Ray’s stomachs are still in knots as they march onto the field in front of 100,000 fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“The first time you twirl in Bryant-Denny Stadium when pregame starts, the drum roll happens and the video is playing and everyone is shaking their shakers, and you just get chills,” Dover said.
The Crimsonettes extends well beyond just gameday. The girls practice five days a week from 3:30-5:30 p.m. with the band. Sometimes Coach Powell will add additional practices to the schedule when the girls need to learn new choreography. Just like any UA athlete, regular workouts and eating healthy is also important and part of their weekly schedule.
“During band camp the Crimsonettes are exposed to proper nutrition and athletic training,” Powell said. “They worked out at Pure Barr four days a week for the three-week band camp period. This workout is based on dance training and does not bulk the individual like heavy weight training. The girls are not required to attend any mandatory workouts during football season but are encouraged to incorporate workouts as a way of life to be fit and healthy.”
Both Dover and Ray said they have appreciated the way Crimsonettes has taught them to manage their time.
“The older we get in school, the tougher it gets,” Dover said. “A bunch [are] doing internships and applying for jobs. It definitely takes balance and being able to manage your time, ‘cause you know you are going to be at band every day from 3:30 to 5:30. You have to plan ahead.”
As an elementary education major, Dover is currently interning with a pre-kindergarten class at Arcadia Elementary School from 7:15 a.m. until 3:15 p.m. She goes straight from school to band and doesn’t start any of her additional homework until after that. Ray, an accounting major, said being so busy has been beneficial to her when interviewing for internships at accounting firms.
“Personally, I am glad I have had to do this,” she said. “It has come up in my interviews, and it has been really cool for them to see that I have done so much and maintained a good GPA.”
The girls hope to end their Crimsonette careers the same way they began, in Pasadena for the BCS National Championship.
“We are hoping we circle back around and go out the way we came in,” Dover said.
