Dust of them pom poms, because the Trail Blazers are looking for a few good BlazerDancers to dance during timeouts, grind during on-court injuries, and probably attend car shows or something. Isn't that what BlazerDancers do? Oh, and make a bikini calendar. There is always a bikini calendar.

Open auditions will be this Sunday at the Wonder Ballroom, the jazz hands and leg kicks start at 3:45 pm. When the dust (spandex?) settles, they'll have 32 contestants. From there, they narrow it down to 16, but to be honest, it gets really confusing. It's like selection sunday or something.

Press release will explain everything:

The 2008-09 BlazerDancers, presented by NAPA Auto Parts, will consist of 16 dancers, who will be chosen from among the field of 32 finalists who have already survived three rounds of cuts.

Members of last year's BlazerDancers squad received a bye into this year's finals, but must audition against 16 new finalists to earn a spot on the team. Finalists will perform two previously choreographed routines and an original one-minute solo for the panel of eight judges (including former BlazerDancer and American Gladiators star Monica Carlson).

Comcast Sports Net Northwest will be on hand to film the auditions for a reality TV show that will air this fall. Trailblazers.com will also be on hand to provide multimedia coverage of the event.

I'm reading a lot of words--American Gladiators, reality show, Trailblazers.com live blogging a dancing tryout--but none of them are addressing the real off-season dilemma facing the Blazers; the mascot, Blaze. How about tryouts for a new mascot? I heard Squatch needs work. We love that guy.