While the Pro Bowl is a time for players to relax, Texans Cheerleader Ashley's week in Honolulu included a hectic schedule full of practices and charity events. The third-year veteran and native of Spring, Texas, managed to have plenty of fun in the sun, but that fun was accompanied by an equal dose of hard work.
"They get us started pretty early in the morning," Ashley said during the Pro Bowl week. "We wake up as early as 5:30, 6 a.m., just to prep and get ourselves ready for the day – full hair, full makeup.
"Our first day that we got here, we had two four-hour practices, believe it or not. Essentially, you're putting together a group of girls that have never met each other in their lives, so in order to get that camaraderie and to develop that cohesiveness, it's condensed time. It's like taking an entire season and packing it into one week."
{QUOTE}Ashley used the countless practice time and events as an opportunity to get acquainted with cheerleaders from around the NFL, including her roommate Chrissy of the New Orleans Saintsations.
"I see one of my (Texans) teammates in each one of the girls that are here, so I feel like I'm almost back at home here in Hawaii," she said. "It's been awesome."
An entrepreneur who owns a mobile gymnastics company in Houston, Ashley was selected for the Pro Bowl by a vote of her fellow Texans Cheerleaders during the 2008 season.
"Representing the Texans is none other than an honor," she said. "The girls on our team are just absolutely incredible, talented, intelligent – such accomplished girls. For me to have gotten selected to represent our entire organization and team, it's a very humbling opportunity and experience."
