Jets' cheer squad flips for Super Bowl shot

The Jets aren't the only ones whose trip to the Super Bowl depends on a victory against the Steelers Sunday night.

The Jets Flight Crew - a squad of 36 dancers and flag carriers piloted by Merrick native Denise Garvey - is hoping for a turn on football's biggest stage.

"If we go to the Super Bowl, it would be a dream come true," said Garvey, 35, who convinced the Jets to create the NFL's newest team of cheerleaders in 2007. "It's going to be very rewarding and exciting."

The Flight Crew helped warm up the crowd during the Jets rally in Times Square Thursday night.

The trip to Arlington, Texas, this year's Super Bowl site, would also be a homecoming of sorts for Garvey, who spent a year as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader long before her turn with Gang Green.

She attended Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville and landed the gig after graduating from SUNY New Paltz and being chosen for the famed Cowboys cheerleaders' travel squad, touring Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, Bosnia, Croatia and other countries mainly to perform for U.S. service members. She later went on to work as a cheerleader for the Knicks, while launching a teaching career in public schools in Hicksville.

But performing at the Super Bowl would be a first for Garvey.

When she first proposed a cheerleading team to the Jets, they were lukewarm, she said. But she went back a couple of years later, and they bit.

"I knew it would take off because it's beautiful women on the field dancing," she said. "It's hard not to watch."

The dancers range from 18 to 30, and are paid per performance. About a third of the team is from Long Island, Garvey said.

Besides performing at games, they also appear at events such as a send-off for the Jets at the team's training facility in Florham Park, N.J., Saturday.

The rally attracted several thousand people, including local politicians and celebrities, and was a sea of green. Pumped up fans waved signs such as one that said, "We will fly."

Jets' owner Woody Johnson told the crowd, "I saw the team at practice today. They're on fire."

Helaine Todaro, 43, of North Bellmore, said she came to share in the Jets' recent success, because "year after year I suffer, and now the Jets are finally getting their due. It's nice for once to be on the winning end."

John Mauro, 14, also of North Bellmore, had "Jets" shaved into his hair. "We're going to win," he predicted.

Chris Hart, 45, of Centereach, said he hasn't washed the socks he wears for Jets games since last year. He also sits in the same chair at home and eats the same food - Doritos washed down by Budweisers - during Jets games.

"I drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago," he said, explaining he's a longtime Jets fan.