Kentucky Woman Shines as Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader

(Editor’s note: This is the first of two columns about two current members of the iconic Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad who graduated from the University of Kentucky. This column features Kentucky native and NFL cheerleader Kleine Powell.)

By Jamie H. Vaught

Kleine Powell has been doing a lot of dancing or cheerleading for a long time, beginning with her very early days in Richmond, Ky., and she still loves it.

“I’ve been dancing since I was born!” smiled Powell, who is now in her fourth year with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. “(Then) I went to Madison Central High School, and I was super involved there. I was on a dance team for actually five years, and it wasn't normal because I danced while in the eighth grade. And I was in, I think, Pep Club and French Club because I was taking French in high school. (I was in) National Honor Society. I did band for a couple years and played the clarinet. I played piano for 18 years. So, I was fairly involved in all things in high school.”

Kleine Powell (Dallas Cowboys Photo)

Then Powell moved on to UK where she was a member of the dance squad for four years. Asked about her favorite memory or game at Kentucky, she said, “Oh, that's a hard one. There are too many to name. But I think, with every member with the UK team, it was so fun. You just kind of go through it with the same group of girls and you become best friends with all of them. And Dawn Walters was the coach at the time, and she was just incredible.

“I think one of my favorite memories was going to UDA (Universal Dance Association) Nationals my senior year (in Orlando, Florida) with all the girls, showcasing a routine that we worked so hard on day in and day out. We went to practice, and it was blood, sweat, and tears. To be recognized for that on a national podium was incredible. We got silver medals in both of our routines that we brought that year. So, it was really cool to see all of our hard work paid off.”

In 2021, she earned a bachelor’s degree in digital media and design with a minor in Japanese language.

Why Japan?

“Ever since I was little, I've always wanted to travel,” said Powell. “I was never able to go out of the country as a young age. So, my first time out of the country, my dad took me to Mexico when I was 14. He had a project down there, so he decided to take me. And ever since then, I was just bit by the travel bug. I was like, ‘Okay, what is the furthest place from the United States that I could possibly go to?’ And I started really getting into the Japanese culture, watching anime, and really fell in love with the culture and with the language specifically.

“That was what I first decided to do when I came to college. I picked my minor before I picked my major. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I went with a Japanese minor, took all the language courses and fell even more in love with it.

“And now I get to practice conversationally. When I see someone in public and they're speaking Japanese, I just introduce myself. And they're always so surprised that this random girl in the middle of Texas is coming up to them saying things in Japanese.

“Hopefully one day I'll be able to go over to Japan and work over there for a short period of time. But for now, I'm just really living it up in Dallas.”

Before graduating, Powell even had plans to study abroad in Japan but things didn’t work out because of the COVID pandemic.

“I had all of my paperwork figured out,” she said. “I had gotten all of these scholarships. I had written so many papers and essays and everything to get the funds to go over to Japan, and lie there for the summer, and then COVID happened. So once COVID hit, everything sort of stalled, everything got canceled. I didn't get to use the scholarships that I had worked really, really hard for. I didn't get to go to Japan that summer.”

After her college days, Powell didn’t really have any plans except to travel and find a job perhaps in a new city. She even thought about going to Japan and work. In the meantime, she was encouraged by the lead recruiter for the world-famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (Shelly Roper-McCaslin) to try out for the legendary squad.

Kleine Powell (Dallas Cowboys Photo)

“After I graduated, along with two of my best friends that I had met at UK, we had decided to do a cross country road trip and it was kind of our present to ourselves,” she said. “As I was starting to go into the audition process for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, I was also on a road trip from Kentucky through Colorado, down through Arizona, Nevada, California, all the states, and then flying to Hawaii. I actually found out in Washington that I made it to training camp. I actually was learning training camp dances in Hawaii. I had to learn, I think, 10 or 12 of them.

“So, it was a very intense process during one of the best trips of my life. You can probably imagine my thoughts and emotions were all over the place. When we got home back to Kentucky, I had three days basically to pack up my life in that one suitcase. And then my mom and I drove 16 hours down to Dallas to (help) move me in.  I took a leap of faith as I moved to Texas, tried out, and made the team. It was a crazy redirect from Japan to Texas for myself as a Kentucky native. And I just happened to make the team and here I am.”

Powell was asked if she actually told her parents that her dream was to become a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader while growing up in Kentucky.

“That's actually a funny question because growing up in Kentucky, we don't have professional sports,” she said. “So it's really just colleges. For me, my dream was always to be on a dance team in Kentucky because I didn't know that there was anything else out there.”

Much later she told her parents, “I wanted to be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and move to Texas next week. They were like, ‘Girl, are you crazy? What do you think you're doing all that for?’  So they were very surprised.

“But when I made the team, they were shocked, elated. They were just so proud of me and happy for me to continue my passion, my athletic passion. Also, I'm able to develop my artistic passion, too. I really have the best of both worlds. But they were, for sure, surprised.”

As you know, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders arguably are the most popular or famous cheerleading squad in the country.

“Honestly, I think it's well deserved,” said Powell. “I love my teammates so much, and each and every one of them put in so much work and effort inside and out of practice. I know girls who are nurses, girls who own businesses, girls who work 9 to 5s. Honestly, we're superheroes and we do it all. I think all NFL cheerleaders are the same, but there's something special about being a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.”

As a Cowboys cheerleader, one of Powell’s favorite moments is doing the annual Cowboys Christmas Extravaganza shows. “Every year we put on about 10 Christmas shows per season,” she said. “And Santa Claus comes, and we have three different outfit changes that we do, and there's a lot of dancing and fireworks. The Christmas tree is lit up, and it's truly the most magical time of the year.”

What did Powell think about popular country singer Dolly Partin, then 77 years old, wearing a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit for the Thanksgiving halftime show at AT&T Stadium last year?

“We had no idea what she was going to wear,” she commented. “While we were waiting to go out, taking in the audience and counting down the seconds, she kind of rises up out of the stage, wearing what we were wearing. We’re all looking at each other like ‘What? How did she even get that?’ We had no idea she was going to wear that.

“Then immediately, we had to go out and we're just shell-shocked. But she looked incredible, and it was so fun to see her wear our uniform. Dolly Partin is just so iconic for that. I love her so much.”

Powell is definitely one of the most fearless and adventurous persons on the squad as she loves traveling. But that’s not all. She recently celebrated her 25th birthday by skydiving from an airplane.

Asked if she struggled with the fear of jumping out of a plane, Powell said, “I love this question. I actually had no fear at all. I've been wanting to skydive since I was 18 years old. So finally having people who wanted to do it with me and celebrate on my 25th birthday was the most fun experience ever. And honestly, I can't wait to do it again.”

Powell is very thankful that she has good family support, including her spouse. She is married to her high school sweetheart and Richmond native, Luc.

“Luc is the most supportive person I've ever met in my life,” she said. “I could tell him that I'm ready to go bungee jumping, and he'd be like, ‘Well, I'm not doing that, but I will take a picture.’  He’s just always there to support and motivate. I'm really blessed to have him because when I come home, and it's 11:00 p.m. after practice, and I'm dog-tired and all I want to do is go to bed. He’s like, ‘Well, you have to eat something,’ and he sets dinner out on the table. He makes sure the apartment is clean for me to come home to. He makes sure that our two little kittens, Poosh and Momo, are well taken care of. I really couldn't do any of this without him.”

Powell may be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, but she will always be a Kentucky girl.

Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published “Forever Crazy About The Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity.”  Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro., he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com .