Who is Savanna Dastrup? The new Dallas Cowboys cheerleader that was rejected last year
The 23-year-old refused to quit after 2025 and turned one of her toughest moments into a career breakthrough
S avanna Dastrup knows exactly how close a dream can feel before it disappears.
Last year, the Utah native reached Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders training camp and came within days of earning a roster spot, only to be cut before the final team was announced. Instead of walking away, she treated the rejection as proof that she was close enough to come back and finish the job.
“I actually auditioned last year, made it through training camp and got cut, like, the week before the team was made,” Dastrup said. “It was super hard, super devastating. But it really motivated me to come back and work harder. And it meant that much more.”
That decision paid off in 2026.
Dastrup returned for another audition, survived training camp and finally earned the place she had been chasing since she was a teenager.
“I wasn’t going to stop either,” she said. “If it wasn’t this year, I was going to audition again.”
Her Dallas Cowboys dream started at 14
Dastrup grew up in Orem, Utah, and first became obsessed with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders after watching “Making the Team” with her mother.
“My mom was like, ‘You should watch Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team with me,’” she said. “So I watched it and I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”
She began taking DCC prep classes at 15 and later chose Texas Christian University in part because Dallas was close enough to keep pursuing the goal.
Dastrup danced with the TCU Showgirls throughout college while regularly making the trip to Dallas for additional prep classes.
Her first full attempt in 2025 was documented during “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.” She reached training camp in an unusually competitive year but eventually became one of the cuts.
DCC director Kelli Finglass encouraged her not to give up.
“You might just chalk this up to timing and experience and the pressure,” Finglass told her. “But I think you've got the skills to make this team or another team.”
Dastrup turned rejection into a second chance
After the setback, Dastrup spent time studying fashion in Paris and continued teaching dance before returning for the 2026 auditions.
This time, the outcome changed.
“I can’t even believe it still,” Dastrup said. “I’m so used to coming and being like, ‘Am I going to get cut tonight?’ I think I still am trying to get out of that mindset. Like, Savanna, you made it.”
She credits her family with helping her stay committed throughout the process.
“My dad always told me to be the first at the studio, the last to leave - put in the extra work - and what’s meant to be will be,” she said.
Now, Dastrup is preparing for the moment she once thought might never arrive.
Her message to anyone dealing with the same kind of rejection is simple.
“I hope that girls that get rejected or don’t make the team they want realize there is a bigger picture,” she said. “And just, yeah, don’t give up.”
One year ago, Dastrup left training camp without a roster spot.
Now she is proof that getting cut does not always mean the dream is over.
