Meet the Laker Girls

Here’s your chance to rub elbows with six charmers from the hottest National Basketball Association (NBA) cheerdancing squad the Laker Girls.

Carlo Singson, the NBA’s country manager for the Philippines, is bringing in the Laker Girls to promote the NBA Madness interactive show that will be staged on over 8,000 square feet of space at the SM Megamall Parking Lot C in Pasig on Sept. 2-5.

The Laker Girls are arriving next Wednesday and Singson is organizing a private reception to welcome the femme fatales.

To give you an opportunity to meet the head-turners, Singson is launching a contest exclusively for Star readers. It’s easy to join. Just write your answers to three questions on a slip of paper, send to "A Sporting Chance," NBA Madness, Philippine Star, 13th and Railroad Streets, Port Area, Metro Manila, include an original front page masthead clipping (showing date of issue) of The Star and don’t forget to write your name, address, telephone number, age and occupation. You can mail your entries–as many as you want to send in–or bring them personally to the

Star office. Cutoff to receive your entries is 5 p.m., Aug. 30. Each entry must be accompanied by a Star masthead clipping.

The questions are:

1. Which team will Shaquille O’Neal play for in the coming NBA season?

2. Who is the new Los Angeles Lakers head coach?

3. Who is the NBA star whose nickname is The Answer?

We will choose two entries with the correct answers and the winners will be invited along with a companion each to the reception for the Laker Girls. The lucky winners will be the Laker Girls’ special guests at the exclusive affair. They’ll also be given two NBA Madness T-shirts, an NBA championship book and two NBA towels as a bonus. The draw will be made after the Aug. 30 5 p.m. cutoff.

We’ll give away consolation prizes to eight other entries.

It won’t be the first time the Laker Girls are invading Manila. In 1997, six Laker Girls came over with O’Neal in his "Rap and Jam" tour. They were Rebecca Lin, Carrie Patton, Andrew Toste, Jennifer Strovas, Denise Jerome and Kelly Hirnovitz.

Tryouts are held every summer for 20 slots on the Laker Girls team by director Lisa Estrada. Hundreds show up. Only one-year contracts are offered with no renewal guarantees. Veterans must report for tryouts just like rookie hopefuls. That’s how competitive it is to land a job as a Laker Girl who must be at least 18 years old with significant dancing experience.

In the NBA, there’s no more exciting cheerdancing team than the Laker Girls. The Lakers website said the Girls "give hometown fans some more to cheer about, other than the score, with their provocative and ever-changing style of dancing."

Estrada is accompanying the six Laker Girls to Manila. Singson said two of the six are Filipinas. They are Alexie Agdeppa and Cheryl Aure.

Alexie is in her second year as a Laker Girl. The oldest of three children, she is a born dancer who has won prizes in several Las Vegas competitions. Her father Ayson is a Los Angeles policeman and her mother Lorna, a good friend of Red Bull consultant Andy Jao’s wife Erilyn, is from Tarlac. She was born and raised in Rowland Heights, California, and is a Dance, World Arts and Cultures major at UCLA.

Cheryl is from Cerritos, California, and is on her third season with the squad. She earned a communications degree at the University of Southern California and is a dance instructor for the United Sport Association.

The other Laker Girls coming to town are brunette Becky Hamm of Littleton, Colorado, Nicole Irving of Diamond Bar, California, Kristin Jacobs of Diamond Bar, California and Nancy Karr of Omaha, Nebraska.

Becky took up dance and business studies at Colorado State and is a professional dancer. A fair warning to hot-blooded males–she indulges in kickboxing.

Nicole, like Alexie, is a Dance, World Arts and Cultures major at UCLA. Kristin is a dietetics nutrition major at Long Beach State and Nancy is a dance student at Loyola Marymount University. Both Kristin and Nancy are blonds.

At the reception, the Laker Girls are expected to perform in their eye-popping, skimpy, midriff-baring outfits. That’s probably why attendance is restricted and by invitation only. If it’s open to the public, the Laker Girls could trigger a stampede of howling wolves because of their high-energy, sexy routine.

You can’t miss this chance to meet the Laker Girls. Send in your entries now and you might just be their special guest at the NBA Madness reception.