The dance team is starting off strong and ready for their upcoming season, even with many new changes. The team had an abundance of SENIORS who graduated last school year, resulting in a significant number of new dancers this year. However, the newcomers have had no trouble adjusting.
“The environment is pretty great; we are trying to get [new members] into it and a lot of the girls are adapting pretty quickly,” Kamari Diggs, ‘25, said.
Claire Crowley, ‘27, who became a co-captain this year, has found that having many new members creates a more pressure free environment.
“It feels very fresh and very fun, and everyone’s a little less uptight than last year. [There is] less pressure because it’s more making sure that all the new members are caught up with everybody else,” Crowley said.
Not only are there new team members, but a newly arrived coach as well. Amaya Smith is a first year coach who graduated from WHHS in 2023, where she was a member of the dance team.
“I only did dance my SENIOR year; I wish I had done it sooner,” Smith said. “It’s so much fun. I would recommend it to everyone.”
Smith’s biggest goal is to create more organization within the program, especially regarding the division between JV and varsity dancers.
“The biggest challenge as a dance team that we are facing is being unified because we have a JV and a varsity, and a lot of the girls on JV feel like they shouldn’t be on JV,” Diggs said.
This is Diggs’ second year on the dance team. She was first introduced to it by a friend and she immediately fell in love with it. This year, she became one of the captains of the dance team and has a unique set of goals in mind for her final year with the team.
“My goal for the dance team this year is for people to treat us with more respect and for us to show a lot of people who think that we are not that serious, that we are serious about it and that we are working really hard this year,” Diggs said.
Another big change for the team this year is that they will now dance for the women’s basketball team. In the past, they only danced for the boys basketball games. The team felt that dancing for the women’s basketball team would be a nice way to show support for women’s sports.
“Especially for our women’s basketball team, they can be better than men in some ways, and I think that it’s unfortunate that men just automatically get more praise than women even though they are equally deserving,” Crowley said.
While there might be new changes in this dance season, the team will still continue to aim for improvement and maintain perseverance.
“We teach the girls dedication; always start what you finish is [our] motto,” Smith said.