Nicoletta Niosi

Kendra White, law student, poses by the statue in front of Green Hall yesterday. White is a cheerleader for the Kansas City Chiefs. She will perform at the Pro Bowl in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Feb. 13.

As Kendrea White posed for the camera under the giant statue in front of Green Hall known by some as “The Surfin’ Judge,” she instinctively flashed the smile she has used on the sideline of every Kansas City Chiefs home game for six seasons.

She brushed her hair back and talked through her teeth about meeting Lamar Hunt and KC Wolf.

Then she led the way into Green Hall, the law building, and down a short flight of stairs. She pulled out a key and opened the door to the Legal Aid Clinic. There, she helps defend people who can’t afford any better in juvenile, municipal and domestic cases.

She posed for another picture in front of an intimidating stack of law books, more of which line the walls of the office. Out came the itinerary for her 10-day trip to Hawaii, where she is taking part in Pro Bowl week. She has represented the Chiefs cheerleaders there, since Monday.

It’s a busy week: buffet breakfasts at the resort, photo shoots, free lunches and luaus, beach bowling, hospital visits, a day-long cheerleading rehearsal, a VIP party, a film festival (beachside), a cheerleading clinic at Pearl Harbor. And more.

When she returns home, she’ll get on with finishing her law degree. She graduates in May.

White, 29, expects to be both a cheerleader and an attorney by this time next year. That’s something game production manager Donna Scott doesn’t remember happening with the Chiefs.

“But I don’t think it’s too unusual,” said Scott, who has worked for the Chiefs for 26 years.

“We’re all professional women,” White explained.

Glance at the Chiefs cheerleading Web page and you’ll see Ginger, an emergency room nurse, Shannon, a dental student, Angel, an art liaison, Heidi, a physical therapist, Brandi, a mutual fund representative, Jessie, an elementary school teacher, and Loree, a community college English instructor, just to name a few.

Yet White said the 36 well-rounded members of the team constantly face the stereotype of the ditzy, flirtatious cheerleader.

“I’ve noticed at photo appearances, people can be kind of cavalier,” she said. “They think we don’t do anything. When I tell them I’m a law student, they completely change their attitude. They’re just surprised by it.”

Elaine Hart, Chiefs cheerleading director, said being a Chiefs cheerleader encompasses more than waving a pair of pom-poms on the sideline while Tony Gonzales dunks the ball over the crossbar.

Hart said every member of the squad makes weekly appearances at Kansas City charity events, year-round. The cheerleaders also hold clinics for more than 1,000 children a year, she said, something White enjoys.

“She’s extremely talented at that,” Hart said. “We try to teach them about character, integrity, fitness, confidence and performance. She’s a good person to learn from.”

It was as a child growing up in Wichita that White first became interested in cheerleading. She started doing it in junior high.

“I would always see the Wichita State cheerleaders practicing,” she said. “I kind of got interested in it, and I’ve been cheering all the way through.”

When she came to the University in 1995, she cheered at Kansas football and basketball games on her way to earning a bachelor’s degree in sports management.

Three years ago, after taking some graduate classes at the University of Missouri-Kansas City while working as an intern in its athletics department, she decided to take her career in a different direction.

The way she described it, she picked law school almost arbitrarily.

“I had done debate and stuff like that in high school,” she said. “I figured, why not? It was on a whim, really.”

So she spent a couple of months studying for the Law School Admission Test and did well enough to get in to the KU School of Law. Her first semester was tough.

“It was like a world I’ve never been in,” she said. But she made it through.

Webb Hecker, associate dean of the school, remembers a wide-eyed White chatting him up three years ago at a faculty-student mixer, their first encounter. When he later received a Christmas card from Hart, including a picture of the Chiefs cheerleaders, he wasn’t surprised.

“I think of the stereotype of a cheerleader as somebody who has a huge, white, pretty smile constantly, somebody with a lot of energy and a very upbeat outlook on life,” he said. “That describes Kendrea perfectly.”

She’s travelled a long way since then. She’s a Pro Bowl cheerleader set to take the Kansas Bar Exam in July. Chatting in a comfortable chair in the Burge Union lobby, she described the rush of emotions she felt when the announcement boomed over the loudspeaker at halftime of the Chiefs-Raiders game on Christmas. She has been picked to go to the Pro Bowl.

“I was completely in shock,” she said. “It’s such a huge honor.”

Hawaii won’t be the first place White has traveled as a Chiefs cheerleader. She reached into her purse - it’s one of those hip purses with the first letter of her name stitched on the side - and pulled out a small photo album.

“Let me show you some pictures,” she said, leaning in to share a closer look.

She flipped through photos taken at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the Chiefs cheerleaders traveled this summer to stage a two-hour Broadway variety show for American troops.

“This guy right here, Brandon, he’s 19,” she said, pointing to a picture in which she’s standing next to a soldier. “And he’s from New York, this 19-year-old kid, fighting for my safety. You take so many things for granted.”

Before White left. she pulled a Chiefs cheerleaders poster out of her purse and signed it. It’d make a great gift for a younger sister.

Somewhere between pictures of Hillary Duff and Avril Lavigne, hopefully, there has to be room for the cheerleading lawyer.