Everyone’s a Lobo, but now three members of the University of New Mexico dance team are a Colt, Seahawk and Ram, too.

Malia Dumlao, Isabelle Vigil and Paloma Lopez have been named to the Indianapolis Colts Cheerleaders, Seattle Seahawks Dancers and Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders.

Each dancer is a graduating senior at UNM and will be joining the squads for the 2026 season.

Lopez looked to her hometown team for an NFL opportunity and auditioned with the Rams Cheerleaders during their open-call tryouts. She made it past the semifinals and was excited for the finals interview process, which gave her a chance to show the team who she was.

“I feel like the hard part was trying to represent yourself in the preliminary and semifinal rounds, because they don’t know who you are,” Lopez said. “They don’t know anything about you. They don’t know where you’re from. And once I made (it) into finals, I was really relieved, because I knew the coaches would get to see how I was as a teammate and how I interacted with the other dancers.”

In her interview, she talked about how she was always taught to project to the higher levels of the stadium. She said she has been that fan in the upper decks watching the cheer squads from above. Now she’ll be the one on the field.

“It’s really exciting to think that now I’ll get to be one of the dancers performing,” she said, “and I’ve always looked up to them when I’ve gone to the games.”

As part of the Lobo Dance team, she said she has been able to give back to the community in ways that go beyond dancing, such as toy drives for children’s hospitals and speaking at schools. She said she is looking forward to applying that philanthropy at a higher level.

“I’m really excited to be able to go back to Los Angeles, where I’m from, and have that role in the community,” Lopez said.

Lopez said it has been great to represent New Mexico and UNM. During tryout finals, she said other participants were coming up to her to ask about Lobo basketball and the Pit.

“It's really exciting to be able to teach people about New Mexico,” Lopez said.

Vigil has been on the Lobo Dance team since her freshman year, and was born and raised in Albuquerque.

“I’m obviously super proud and excited to be a New Mexican dancing at the next level,” Vigil said, “and I’m very proud to represent UNM.”

Her desire to join an NFL team stemmed from participating in an event called Pro Action, where college and professional teams come together to perform. She said she is drawn to the Seahawks’ fan culture.

“I feel like it’s so similar to the fan culture at UNM where everyone is like a Seahawks fan for life, ride or die,” Vigil said.

After making it through finals and being announced on the roster, she said she stood there in disbelief, clutching the poms given to her by a junior Seahawks dancer. Soon after, she was fitted for a Seahawks uniform, and she said she couldn’t believe she was wearing it herself.

“I’ve been seeing myself in cherry and silver for the past four years, and so to see myself in like, a dark blue and green uniform was so weird, but it was so fun,” she said.

She said, through rehearsals and finals, the team’s energy remains high and positive as the Seahawks step off one of their best seasons ever as Super Bowl LX champions. She said it’s a cool space to be stepping into as a rookie.

“I remember watching the Super Bowl with my friends and thinking, like, how badly I wanted to be on the field with them,” Vigil said.

Dumalo said she first was drawn to the Colts cheer team and their mascot, Blue, due to their social media presence. This led her to take a deeper look into not only the cheer team, but the coaching organization of the Colts itself. She felt like the team was a good fit for her.

“They’re owned by women, which is really awesome to see, especially in the NFL,” she said.

Dumlao never dreamed of being an NFL cheerleader but was motivated to try out to see what she was capable of.

The application process began in December and continued through February, with video submissions to become a finalist. After that, Dumlao flew to Indianapolis and went through two weeks of in-person workshops, including interviews, technique, choreography and more.

She said the final round had around 47 girls. At the end, she was one of 26 chosen for the 2026 roster. She said it was an amazing feeling to hear her name called out as a Colts cheerleader.

“It’s still surreal, like I’m still in disbelief,” she said. “It was a very long two weeks out there, and it really pushes you physically, mentally and emotionally.”

Dumlao said the final selection process had all the girls in one room as they called out the audition numbers, and all she was waiting for was to hear the number 23.

“As soon as I heard my number, I just melted, and I just started crying, because I was just repeating the number in my head,” Dumlao said.

“That instant feeling of relief, once I heard my number called, it was just amazing.”

When it came down to who she wanted to tell first, it was one of her biggest supporters, her mom. Who, luckily, was in the stands waiting for the final roster announcement.

“How it’s announced is you go one by one, they say your name, you do a little two-eight count solo, and then you do a little group dance,” Dumlao said. “And so my first time coming on stage in the Colts gear is how my mom found out. And so she has a video of that, it’s just her screaming. It just made me want to cry to see her in the audience.”

She said the support she has had from her mother and loved ones her whole life has made everything worth it. While competing for the highest level of cheer and dance was scary and nerve-racking, support pushed her through and showed her she could do it.

The first moment of putting on the uniform and knowing she would get to wear it for the next year, representing the organization, felt surreal, she said.

After wearing red since high school, she said, it was different to see herself in the Colts’ blue.

“It just felt amazing, just to even have the horseshoe on my chest,” Dumlao said.

For Dumlao, it is not just about representing the Colts but also New Mexico and her hometown, Roswell. She said she finds New Mexico sometimes gets left out a bit and so do small towns, so she is excited to be able to represent the whole state.

“I just hope that it shows not only like people, but even younger girls that might look up to me that nothing is too far out of reach, and that as long as you try, that anything is possible,” she said.

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.