Unt Dancers Co-captain Wins Samsung Sideline Spirit Award Contest

[jperg2]

Apologies if posted before... I must have missed it.

SOURCE: http://www.inhouse.unt.edu/index.cfm

UNT Dancers co-captain wins Samsung Sideline Spirit Award Contest

Posted by: Michelle Hale

Sophomore psychology major Caris Tschauner, co-captain of the North Texas Dancers, has won the 2006 Samsung Sideline Spirit Award Contest sponsored by AthlonSports.com.

She will be featured in a photo shoot in Athlon Sports’ 2007 college football magazine and receive a Samsung LCD flat-panel television, a Samsung sports camcorder, a hi-fi conversion DVD recorder and $1,000.

The online voting competition on www.athlonsports.com featured photos of members of university cheerleading squads and spirit groups showing their school spirit. Each participant represented her university’s athletic conference. Supporters visited the web site to vote for the participants in one of four rounds, with the top finishers from each round advancing to the finals.

Tschauner represented the Sun Belt Conference, the conference including UNT, in the online voting competition on AthlonSports.com. She won by 43,509 votes over the second-place finisher, Shawn Manners from the Southeast Conference.

“I was very honored to represent the Sun Belt and win this competition,” says Tschauner, who received many votes from those posting on www.GoMeanGreen.com, the web site for UNT sports fans. “We’re not as well known as some of the other conferences, but this proves we’re just as good about spirit.”

Tschauner entered the competition by filling out an application on the magazine’s web site and submitting photos of herself showing her school spirit. Her photos were posted on the web site in October in Round Three of the competition, which ended Nov. 3. The competition finals began Nov. 26 and ended Dec. 14.

During the finals, Tschauner was one of two Sun Belt Conference representatives. She also competed against representatives from the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big Twelve, Pacific 10 and Southeastern conferences.

Tschauner started dancing at age 3 and joined the North Texas Dancers to help her go farther in a dance career. After graduating from UNT, she plans to be a member of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Dallas Mavericks Dancers or the Rockettes while also working as a physical therapist.

[ADLER]

Caris is spending her Christmas vacation at her home in Odessa where she was recently interviewed by the local news concerning the Sideline Spirit contest.

CBS News

Click on the blue PLAY button to see the interview.

[VideoEagle]

Caris is spending her Christmas vacation at her home in Odessa where she was recently interviewed by the local news concerning the Sideline Spirit contest.

CBS News

Click on the blue PLAY button to see the interview.

Isn't it nice to know that people in Odessa put her over the top! At least according to the Odessa TV station!

[Baby Arm!]

Isn't it nice to know that people in Odessa put her over the top! At least according to the Odessa TV station!

Cut her some slack, she talking to her home town TV station about the people in her hometown. I'm sure they did a lot of voting for her. GMG.com isn't soley responsible.

[ADLER]

I failed to read, see, or hear anything which possibly could be misconstrued as being questionable.

The station did a feature back in November about people voting for Caris in the contest, and then they did a follow-up after she had won it. Caris politely thanked the people of her home town that participated.

Seriously, what else should she have said in an Odessa interview?

On a related note, the station states that she "WILL BE RECEIVING A SCHOLARSHIP AFTER A SIDELINE SPIRIT CONTEST NAMED HER THE WINNER."

If that scholarship was by chance awarded by an Odessa civic organization, then yeah, she's probably pretty darn grateful to those people.

Way to go Caris!

[untcampbell]

Can you guys post the text? I was distracted by the anchor's beautiful tree she chose to wear that evening. Edward Scissorshands could have turned that into a dinosaur.

Congrats to Caris, and the power of GMG.com and the Nation.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

-----Another anchor ( Tatum Hubbard, and a former Miss Texas ) did a "bit" on Caris about Thanksgiving and asked for locals to vote for her. [ provided the website ] I live in the CBS-7 viewing area and saw it. I feel sure most votes came from UNT and the GMG-board but Odessa/Midland area did contribute votes as well. I think I remember a news item also appearing in the local Midland newpaper when the voting was going on and probably it appeared in the Odessa one also -- which I don't read. I suspect a lot of Odessa alums and friends were voting as well. Her winning definitely has appeared in Midland paper since she won...

----- More good UNT publicity to go with all the articles appearing about Todd Dodge going to UNT..

--Adler --do you live near Odessa???.. thought you might since you knew of the TV "bit".

Edited January 2, 2007 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[ADLER]

Can you guys post the text? I was distracted by the anchor's beautiful tree she chose to wear that evening. Edward Scissorshands could have turned that into a dinosaur

Maybe it was Homecoming.

--Adler --do you live near Odessa???.. thought you might since you knew of the TV "bit".

No, I live in Flower Mound. I was looking to see if the DRC ever did a folow-up and saw the interview.

Edited January 2, 2007 by ADLER