An Atlanta Falcons cheerleader who spent an entire decade trying to make the team shared how she finally achieved her goal.
Ninth time’s a charm for Joyce McNally, 36, who did not become a professional NFL cheerleader until she was 30 years old.
From 2011 to 2019, the determined performer had failed seven Falcons’ tryouts and one New York Jets’ audition. But her refusal to give up finally paid off.
‘I auditioned technically eight times [for the Falcons] and I made it on my eighth audition,’ McNally explained in an Atlanta Falcons’ social media post in 2023.
The Florida native’s original goal from childhood was to become a college cheerleader for Notre Dame University, she told PEOPLE.
But when she rejected from her dream school, she came up with a plan B: cheering at Florida State University.
However, McNally realized a major flaw with that idea – she did not have the mandated tumbling abilities to make the team.
Unwilling to accept total defeat, she happily joined the college’s spirit organization instead.
Ninth time’s a charm for Joyce McNally, 36, (pictured) who did not become a professional NFL cheerleader until she was 30 years old
From 2011 to 2019, the determined performer (pictured) had failed seven Falcons’ tryouts and one New York Jets’ audition
Although its not quite a cheer team, this group’s purpose was to boost FSU’s morale throughout community and sporting events.
By her senior year, McNally decided to give cheerleading another try, this time at the professional level.
‘When I graduated sometime around December of my senior year, I was like, “Well, what if I try to be an NFL cheerleader? They don’t tumble. They just dance,”‘ she recalled to the magazine.
‘And I was like, “I can figure that out!”‘
With her 22-year-old self’s unwavering sense of confidence and her college years behind her, McNally picked up and left Florida for Atlanta, Georgia in 2011.
Before her first Atlanta Falcons tryout, she signed up for dance classes and even took to YouTube to try and prepare for the highly-compeтιтion audition.
With essentially no prior experience, she joined some Zumba classes and taught herself basic techniques using online video tutorials, she told PEOPLE.
When the audition rolled around, McNally gave it her all and managed to make it through to the semi-final round before being cut.
McNally (pictured) first set her sights on college cheerleading, but her plans never played out because she lacked the tumbling skills
After six years of living out her dreams, McNally (pictured) revealed to PEOPLE that she is planning on retiring from pro-cheer in the 2025-2026 NFL season
She returned the following year and once again was cut just before finals.
McNally’s luck appeared to be turning in 2013, when she made it to the final bracket of aspiring cheerleaders. However, she was not one of the 36 chosen performers that year.
She had to forgo the 2014 auditions due to health reasons, but essentially unsuccessfully tried out every year until 2019, when she finally received the news she was yearning for.
‘That’s the year I made the team,’ she joyously told PEOPLE, admitting she was ‘devastated’ each of the previous years she failed.
As McNally said in the 2023: ‘2019 was my “I’m going to try this one more time year.”‘
‘Deep down I always knew that my technique, my lack of technical background held be back. It’s not my strong suit.’
However, she said the Atlanta Falcons team’s choreographer is excellent and helped her develop any skills she was lacking.
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McNally (pictured) said she knows it was her technical skills that held her back for about 10 years
After six years of living out her dreams, McNally revealed to PEOPLE that she is planning on retiring from pro-cheer in the 2025-2026 NFL season, joking this is the first time in 14 years she has not been stressing over an upcoming audition.
‘I have a little tagline that I tell everyone. It’s that, “Your dreams are worth the wait,” she told PEOPLE.
‘The time is going to pᴀss anyways for any goal and so why not keep trying if your heart is still in it?’
