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Faith Ward describes the ultra-competitive journey of becoming a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader as a cocktail of hard work, determination and, at times, guilt.
Before being handed her pair of white boots and star-embroidered vest for a spot in one of the world’s most coveted cheerleading squads, the 22-year-old from Perth was booking dance gigs on cruise ships.
Australian dancer Faith Ward shows off her Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader outfit.Credit: Instagram
Speaking from her new bedroom in Dallas, Ward recalls watching the first season of Netflix’s docuseries America’s Sweethearts from a cruise bunk bed, dreaming about one day being part of the squad.
“I don’t think I will ever fully process the fact that I’m a DCC. It feels like a dream, and I’m still waiting to wake up from it,” Ward told this masthead.
Thousands auditioned for one of six rookie spots offered this year – the smallest intake in history, according to Ward, who was born in New Zealand but raised in Western Australia. She becomes the third Australian and first New Zealander to do so.
After auditioning, Ward battled through a gruelling training camp, watching new friends – who had trained their whole lives for a spot in the squad – get sent home each day.
“I almost felt like, do I belong in this position?” she said. “Because this has been just as much my dream as it probably was theirs, but they have thought about this since the day they could walk.”
“Some of these girls would give their right arm to be here. So would I – I have worked just as hard … even though from the get-go, it wasn’t like ‘I want to be a DCC’. I wanted to make it in the dance world and do something that makes me happy. This happened to be it.
“I did [have a] guilty kind of feeling – imposter syndrome is a perfect word to sum it up.”
The Netflix show catapulted the NFL cheer squads into the mainstream since first airing in June last year, also revealing a raft of issues, including low pay, with many women working up to two jobs to afford to be in the squad. More recently, the DCCs were awarded a 400 per cent pay rise before the 2025 season.
Featuring in Netflix’s top 10 shows across 27 countries, according to Forbes, the series also explored the kinship between the cheerleaders and their journeys achieving and maintaining the perfect DCC look.
Traditionally known for voluptuous and bouncy curly hair, another DCC, Ava Lahey, was forced to address her fans in a video watched 21.5 million times, explaining why she was seen performing with her hair straightened.
Naturally, when Ward started wearing her hair up during practice, fans started asking questions. DCC Director Kelli Finglass, who is also in charge of the cheerleaders’ makeovers, took a liking to the ponytail, according to Ward, who at first thought it was “not an option”.
“[Finglass] was looking at my hair, and she was like, ‘oh, I really like your hair how it is in your headshot ... which was with your hair up’,” she said.
“I don’t want to jump the gun and be like, yes, I’m 100 per cent going to be the DCC with the ponytail until [Finglass] solidifies that first,” she said.
Ward started dancing when she was two. But it wasn’t until she turned 10 that she decided to make a career out of it and began dancing competitively.
The DCC first crossed her radar when she was travelling the US for dance competitions in about 2020, and a mutual friend shared her experience of becoming a cheerleader.
“One of the girlfriends that I made through these dance competitions is called Sophie, and she’s in the show,” she says. “I followed her journey for a bit. I was always seeing her post this DCC thing.”
“Then they brought out the show, and I was like, wait a damn minute, this is so perfect for me.”
Ward says she sees herself back in Perth one day, but is still unsure about the future. One thing is certain: she wants to remain a DCC for as long as she can.
“This is it. I’ve made it. This is my dream. I plan on being a hopeful veteran for the next couple of years, and this will be the top of my career,” she said.
“I’ve done the cruise ships, I’ve done the professional gigs, I’ve done all the little things in the dance industry. Now this is my final thing, where I get to go out with a bang.”
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