James Schwille

( Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun / November 16, 2010 )

Age: 32

Day job: Lumber sales

A former jock, Schwille played football and baseball, wrestled and ran track in high school. He made fun of the male cheerleaders.

When he became one in college at Virginia Tech, he wasn't surprised to find himself the target, he laughingly says, "of all the same jokes I used to make."

A member of Virginia's National Guard who served in Afghanistan, he says he got a lot of kidding from his fellow soldiers, along the lines of: "You’re a cheerleader? Wait a minute. Wait a minute."

Schwille says he told them he's been hurt more cheerleading than he ever was playing all of his other sports combined. And that he gets paid to be mere feet from Joe Flacco and Ray Lewis, to say nothing of the women he's throwing and catching.

"It's an experience that so few people get to do," he says. "Twenty-one guys in the whole country."