Dallas Gladiator Couple
Star-Telegram.com
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When I first heard that Dallas sales rep Ally Davidson, who will appear on tonight's American Gladiators, tried out for the show on her wedding day -- in her wedding veil -- I made the mistaken, sexist assumption that her husband Jeff, a Dallas financial planner who also appears tonight, tried out first.
Turns out it was the other way around. Ally, 24, wasn't trying to prove herself in the wake of her husband; she just up and auditioned. He's the one who had to be talked into appearing, and as you'll see below, he was a lot less prepared than she was. Both will appear in a couples-themed edition at 7 tonight on KXAS/Channel 5, with Ally taking on a woman from the Phoenix area (and the Gladiators, of course), and Jeff, 29, competing against that woman's husband.
I chatted with Ally and Jeff -- sounds like a TV show name, doesn't it? -- on Friday afternoon, well past the Monday YourLife deadlines for the print edition, but in plenty of time for the blog. I'd hoped to talk to them together, but phone problems made separate interviews necessary. Still asked them some of the same questions, though. Responses are edited, so I won't be cluttering them up with ellipses.
How did you two meet?
Jeff: Ally was, and is, a phenomenal Central Texas athlete down in Austin. She was all-state in softball, all-state in basketball, defensive player of the year on the state women's championship volleyball team. My best friend, who was the best man at my wedding, happened to coach her AAU all-star Central Texas basketball team. He asked me to help out with team my senior year. I was basically assistant coach, and she was our star player. We kinda got to know each other a little bit. There was a game at nationals in which she had 44 points and made 10 of 11 3-pointers and had the game-winning shot. Everybody rushed the court because we won and her mom and grandma ran out, and I met them at half-court, and I just yelled at them, "I'm gonna marry your daughter!" Her mom goes, "OK." That was before we even started dating. [They eventually dated long-distance for six years.]
I guess I understand Ally trying out for the show on her wedding day. But what's up with doing it in her wedding veil?
Ally: It was like one last crazy thing to do before I got married. I wanted to let the producers know that I was making that big a sacrifice to come try out for the show on the day of my wedding. You know, there were about a thousand other things I should have been worried about. But I really wanted to get on, so that was a way to set myself apart. I had to be able to cut into line, otherwise I would've missed the wedding. So luckily they let me skip to the front of the line, and I went straight to the church afterward.
Jeff: To a degree, it was expected, because she does stuff like that. She's very spontaneous.
Ally: I definitely didn't tell him I did this till after the wedding. Nobody told him. They thought he would freak out. They probably thought, and I was thinking too, that he might think I was getting cold feet if I was going to try out on the day of my wedding. Right after we got married and they were taking pictures is when I told them. He was totally fine with it then.
I'd assumed that Ally followed in Jeff's footsteps for Gladiators. But Jeff tried out second.
Jeff: No, I never tried out. The producers talked me in to coming.
Ally: He didn't even know about the tryouts. It was crazy. I went and tried out not knowing of the possibility of them doing a couples episode, but after they saw my story, we sent in a tape and they saw Jeff on the audition tape I sent in, so they called me and asked me about him.
Jeff: It was hard [to talk me into it], because Ally works out like three times a day. I'm a good athlete -- we wakeboard, we mountain-bike -- but basically, since October, when we put our boat in the garage, I haven't really exercised. The whole honeymoon I'm going, "You'd better go work out, you'd better go run, you're going to be on TV," half-thinking we'd never hear from them again. I'm sitting on the beach, having a drink, having a hamburger. And then, sure enough, I get a call from Ally when we get back from the honeymoon: "I just got a call from American Gladiators! They want me on the show!" I'm like, "awesome." Then she says, "But you won't believe this ..."
How did your families react when they found out you were both going to be on the show?
Jeff: They were excited for her and a little bit scared for me.
One of the male contestants on last week's episode said the Gladiators are a lot bigger than they look on TV. Is that what you found out?
Jeff: They look big on TV, but just seeing them in real life -- I played high school sports, but I've never been face to face with a 7-foot-1, 330-pound body builder that's about to tackle me. [Jeff says he is 5-foot-10, 160 pounds]
Ally: Before every event, Jeff and I were pretty terrified. The [Gladiators] are only standing a couple of feet away from you on some events. You don't know how you're going to blow by this person that's way stronger than you are, outweighs you. We had to be quicker and more agile. But definitely, we were very scared.
So I take it that this is even tougher than it looks on TV.
Jeff: The tougher part was the emotional part. You'd be in the locker room [all day] and have one 60-second burst where you were out there performing. So you have all morning, all night, all day to think about your 60 seconds. You can't eat, you can't sleep, you're nervous because you're going to be on TV, you're nervous because they don't tell you what event you're doing. You don't know anything.
Ally: I can't really explain that type of nervousness. I've never felt that kind of feeling before. You're anxious, you don't practice the event that you're doing, they just kind of throw you out there, they don't give you much of a warning. You just have to be prepared for anything. |
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