Broncos Cheerleaders Swimsuit Calendar Shoot

by Teresa Shear, Special to the Rocky Mountain News


The Denver Broncos cheerleaders are shooting their 2009 swimsuit calendar in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Above, Romi Bean.

Members of the Denver Broncos cheerleading squad have been on location in the Riviera Maya this week, shooting next year's cheerleader swimsuit calendar. Squad director Teresa Shear has been sending the Rocky exclusive updates from Mexico as the women hit the beach and model the latest in swim styles.

DAY 4

Day 4, and I have to say our staff is getting a little tired. The early mornings are the hardest on our hair and makeup artists, but Octavio and Sedrique keep going and turning out beautiful work as do our photographers, Rob Hawthorne and Pete Eklund. We all keep each other motivated for each shot to make sure the cheerleaders look their absolute best.

We also have a film crew along documenting the "Making of the 2009 Broncos Cheerleaders Calendar" that will air on Comcast Video on Demand mid-August and be available for sale with our calendar. Sarah Culter (former Broncos cheerleader) is the host of the show and Garron Bateman and Nick Young our camera crew. They have a very scary knack of catching you doing the most embarrassing things on camera and keeping us all laughing at ourselves. I will definitely have to screen the calendar special before it goes on air!

This morning we shot the cover of our 2009 calendar at Maroma Beach. Sorry, but I will have to keep you all in suspense on this photo until our calendar comes out mid-August. I will say that the sunrises here on the Rivera Maya are almost as beautiful as our Colorado sunsets and the cover will not disappoint!

After we finished our cover shot, we started setting up our next shot with redhead Lauren Gardner. Lauren's photo was taken in the "spa" over the water. This place is definitely where I would want to spend an afternoon. It is an open-air hut with massage tables built right over the ocean. We all took a bit of a rest on the massage tables while Rob set up the lighting and we waited for Lauren to finish getting ready. Lauren is quite the comedian. I have to say last year as a rookie, she was pretty quiet, but this year, the real Lauren is coming out.

Next we moved down the beach to Mi Hotelito and our third model/cheerleader of the morning, rookie Christina Connolly. This hotel is beautiful with each suite having its own balcony with its own plunge pool. The architecture along the edge of the suites captured my eye and we worked to find the right angle and pose for Christina with photographer Pete Eklund.

Our final shot of the morning was with one of our captains, four-year veteran Bri Bateman. The white stucco steps of this building really shows off Bri's fun Betsey Johnson suit and her long legs. Beautiful shot, Bri!

With another four shots in the bag, we headed back to the hotel for lunch, pool time and a little rest before our night shot with veteran Stephanie White.

Some of you may recognize Stephanie (formerly Stephanie Smith). Steph was on our team three years ago and was one of our captains. She graduated from CU and applied to Physician's Assistant school with the University of Colorado Medical Center. She was accepted and because of the strenuous class schedule and the time commitment, she was not able to audition for our team and go to PA school at the same time. She finished Physician's Assistant school last year and decided to come back and re-audition. I am thrilled to have her back on this team and proud of her so many of her accomplishments. She is a great example to our rookies, a great leader, intelligent, beautiful and a tremendous athlete. She is in training for a triathlon right now and has run several half marathons (sub two hours). Her best time is 1 hour and 48 minutes, which is pretty fast for 13.1 miles.

As part of our sponsorship with Fun Jet Vacations, two lucky Broncos Fans win a trip to come along on the trip with the Broncos cheerleaders for the calendar shoot. This year, Gwen and Gerry Stokoe from Montana entered to win online at www.denverbroncos.com and joined us in Mexico. They are huge Broncos fans and it was so fun to have them on our trip. They joined us on the beach for Stephanie White's photo shoot and we took a few pictures with them that I included as well.

Visit Day 4 slideshow here.