A decade ago, Tiffany Hutchinson was recovering from a broken pelvis. Today, her ills are more likely to be sore muscles and a busy mother's tight schedule. And perhaps a little jet lag.
Hutchinson, 30, lives in Draper, but every home game during football season she hops on a plane for San Francisco, dons a cheerleader's outfit and spends at least six hours with a team of some of the National Football League's sideline stars.
She is a member of the Gold Rush, the San Francisco 49ers' cheerleading squad.
Some of her teammates may have to drive a few hours from Fresno or Sacramento, Calif., for the squad's weekly practice and the team's eight regular-season home games, but they've got nothing on Hutchinson, who flies out weekly from Utah, where she lives with her husband and three sons.
Hutchinson's husband, Paul, who joins her in San Francisco for every game, said it's better that way: With the Bay area's high cost of living, moving to California would probably be more expensive than making the weekly trip. He owns a marketing company based in Cedar City, where they considered living, but Tiffany said she couldn't do it — "I'm a big-city girl" — and she needed to be close to a major airport. So a year ago, they bought a house in Draper.
And Paul's thrilled to play the supportive husband.
"It's been her dream forever," he said. "I'm a huge supporter of people having their dreams and running with them."
And that's just what Tiffany Hutchinson has done.
A dancer since the age of 3, the Olympus High School graduate said she decided she wanted to cheer when she was in junior high. Later, as a member of the Salt Lake Stars dance team, she performed at a 49ers game, watched the cheerleaders, and thought, "This is my team," she said.
Tiffany said she is a big football fan, and she loves the 49ers. When asked if he is a 49ers fan, Paul said, "I am now."
So when she tried out for the squad last year and didn't make it, Tiffany became even more determined to make it the next go 'round, she said. And she did — in fact, Paul is quick to point out, she was the first person the squad's managers called back after the audition in April.
No small feat for a woman who, at age 22, gave birth to twin boys, Jaden and Jordan, who are now 8. She also has a 4-year-old son, Brennan. A pretty significant success, in fact, for a woman who, at age 19, just before her wedding, was in a car accident with Paul, who was then her fianc. It left her pelvis shattered.
But Paul said his wife, with her positive attitude and religious faith, was destined to do just what she wanted with life.
"She's had a pretty long road," he said, adding that he has been most amazed not by her success in reaching her goals but by "her complete faith that she was going to make it."
Tiffany said she prayed many times to find out whether dedicating so much time to becoming a Gold Rush member was right for her. When she felt it was, she went for it, sparing no sacrifice.
Paul said that after Tiffany first tried out and didn't make the squad, she learned from her mistakes and became ever more determined. She worked out two hours a day, he said. She underwent treatments to help rid her of the stretch marks any mother of three would have. She filled the house with positive affirmations to help her keep her eye on the prize.
And it paid off, he said, as she worked her way back to "looking like she's a 19-year-old cheerleader again."
Last Christmas he used his computer to manipulate a photograph of a Gold Rush cheerleader, replacing her face with Tiffany's. They framed the 8-by-11-inch picture and put it in their bedroom.
Now that she's made the team, Tiffany has a whole new set of challenges: trying to balance six-hour weekly practices in a different time zone, the demands of raising three young boys and a calling as young women's camp director for her ward in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
But she's learning to get really organized, she said. She's started using a day planner to keep track of where she has to be when. And her parents, who live in East Millcreek, play a big role, she said.
On game weekends, when Tiffany and Paul are in San Francisco for two days, the boys stay with Tiffany's mom, Chris Upwall. (They did get to go to Tiffany's second game, "excited to see Mom down there," sprouting their own dreams of becoming football players, Tiffany said.)
"She's been an amazing support," Tiffany said of her mother.
The team's Saturday season-ender against the Seattle Seahawks ends her cheering chore for this season, and the team doesn't have a postseason to look forward to.
At least not this year.
Next year, she said. Next year she plans to try out again, and she hopes that she'll make the squad and cheer for a 49ers team that keeps playing long after the regular season is over — maybe even a Super Bowl team.
E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com