Sioux Falls, SD (KELO AM and KWSN) – Fans of the Minnesota Vikings have been given one more reason to cheer for the purple and gold next season, after it was announced Wednesday that Karmen and Kirsten Nyberg of Sioux Falls will be part of the team’s 35 member cheer squad for the 2015-16 season. The twin sisters have spent a combined 32 years practicing dance and cheering at all levels; including at Sioux Falls Lincoln, Augustana College, and most recently for the Sioux Falls Storm indoor football team.
Current Mitchell High School cheer coach Amanda Gilman spent one year coaching the Nybergs at Sioux Falls Lincoln, and from day one of her tenure with the Patriots she said they were the cornerstone of her squad. “I walked into practice my first day there, and those two girls just stood out to me. First of all because they were just leaders, they had a presence in the gym.” She added their skill set combined with that leadership and presence made Wednesday’s announcement no surprise to her at all, “anything you could pick for a cheerleader, especially on a high school team, those girls had.”
Gilman, who was a cheerleader herself at Parkston High School and also won the 2012 Spirt of Six award at the AA Boys state tournament as coach at Mitchell High School, said as a young coach she still learned a lot from Karmen and Kirsten. “They were always ones to step up and say ‘well coach, this is how we’ve done it in the past’ kind of directing me.”
According to a press release from the Sioux Falls Storm, Kirsten has been dancing for nearly 18 years. She began dancing at age five at a local studio where she took ballet, jazz, tap, and hip hop classes. Kirsten also participated in competitive dance and cheerleading for over ten years at the all-star and high school level, and was a four-year member on Augustana’s cheer and dance teams. Karmen has been dancing for 18 years (14 competitively). She was also a member of Augustana’s dance team. Last year the twins were in the running to become members of the Denver Broncos cheer squad.
“If cheer and dance is the direction you want to go, [getting to the NFL] is the ultimate dream” said Gilman. She added all their previous coaches and instructors can take pride in this moment as well. “It’s an incredible thing for those girls, and to think that I coached them in their senior year it’s just really exciting.”
(Information from the Sioux Falls Storm was used in this report)