After making the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleading team together in 2021, SJU Dance Team alums Cassie Boone ’17 and Lucia Petrongolo ’19 fulfilled a lifelong dream many dancers share: performing at the Super Bowl. Now, they’ve done it twice.
Currently in their fourth season with the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders, Boone and Petrongolo performed in the 2025 Super Bowl at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana Feb. 9. Their first Super Bowl performance came when the Eagles reached the Super Bowl in 2023.
Boone said performing for the Eagles fans at the Super Bowl was not all that different from performing for St. Joe’s fans.
“Performing at St. Joe’s is very much like a family atmosphere. With it being a little bit of a smaller school, it always felt like a tight-knit community,” Boone said. “That’s how the Eagles fans and the Eagles atmosphere is as well. You feel like you’re at home, and you feel like you’re performing in front of your family and friends.”
Boone and Petrongolo have danced since childhood and shared the lifelong dream of making it to the professional level of dance. Boone grew up dancing at Dance to the Music School of Dance in Horsham, Pennsylvania. Petrongolo trainedgrew up dancing at Chez Dance Studio in Turnersville, New Jersey. After dancing at St. Joe’s, both women wanted to expand their journeys further.
“Cassie and I performed tricks that we learned from Saint Joseph’s University on the Super Bowl field,” Petrongolo said. “It was a tribute to everything we learned at St. Joe’s, and taking it to the biggest stage of dance — the Super Bowl — it was an incredible experience.”
Since the Philadelphia Eagles are Boone’s home team, there was no doubt about which team she wanted to audition for when she tried out in the spring of 2021.
The tryout process is three months long and begins online. Auditioners submit an open call video performing provided choreography. In the semifinals, the auditioners learn and perform new dances. Throughout this process, there are online interviews and Zoom sessions. Auditioners are selected in person for the business interview round. Alongside being a cheerleader, the women are also brand ambassadors and represent the community. The rounds start to narrow down and the final team is selected.
The team practices on Tuesday and Wednesday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. Throughout the week, the cheerleaders make appearances and finish the week off performing at home games.
Both Boone and Petrongolo also juggle day jobs while cheering for the Eagles. Petrongolo works Monday through Friday as a first grade teacher in Williamstown, New Jersey. On Thursdays, Petrongolo teaches dance at her hometown studio, Chez.
Petrongolo said performing in the Super Bowl in 2023 was an incredible experience, and getting to come back and perform in the Super Bowl this year was even better.
“Seeing that green and black and silver confetti come out was a full circle moment that we did it,” Petrongolo said. “We won. We are world champions and that will never be taken away from us, and I’m so happy I was a part of that.”
Kiki Pigford ’16, SJU Dance Team co-head coach, danced with Boone and Petrongolo while all three were students. During Pigford’s senior year, Boone was a junior, and Petrongolo was in her first year.
“I always relied on her because she had an amazing technique skill set to even help me,” Pigford said of Boone.
The three women remain in close contact with one another.
“I speak for all alumni that have come through that program, to see them being able to have this opportunity, along with other alumni that have gone on to dance on professional dance teams, it’s just nothing like it,” Pigford said. “It’s really great to see that there are options once they leave college, and to be able to fulfill that lifelong dream is amazing.”
