Roller Coaster of a Ride

I know I am late posting about State Drill Team, but in my defense I have been sick since the competition. This has been quite the year in drill team. First of all they got two new coaches, and second of all the school decided to let the girls try being on both drill and cheer if they wanted. Of course Mahala was all over that. She was doing both but found out quickly how hard it was on her body. On the advice of her Dr. (she has scoliosis) he told her just to pick one. It was hard for her to do because she loved them both but it came down to her thinking she was a better dancer than she was a cheerleader so she stuck with drill.

The year definitely had a lot of bumps and turns in the road that in the end made the girls nothing but stronger for all the challenges. Three weeks before state and two before region they changed all three routines and two of the uniforms. No one and I mean no one was expecting these girls to be able to pull it off. They had amazing senior captains who believed in the team the whole time. They just kept encouraging and pushing them to do it.

They headed to Kanab for region and boy were those cowboys shocked. Kanab so thought that they had it in the bag but when our girls took the floor it was amazing to see how far they had came in just two short weeks. These girls did in that short amount of time what other teams had been working on for 6 months. Their dances were not with out flaws but you could just tell they had their confidence back. They ended up taking first in region and the high light of the day was being mooned by the Kanab dancers, can you say great sportsmanship.

Here are a few of the pictures I took, they are not the greatest but atleast it's something. The start of the kick routine up at State.

This is their kick routine at Region.

This is their dance routine at Region.

The next week was State and although a little nervous you could just tell that they were ready. There were a total of five teams really in contention for the state title this year so it was any ones guess how it would all turn out. Our girls got out there and danced their hearts out. They took a second in each routine, which gave them enough points to finish first over all. Some of the other teams where saying that we didn't deserve it because we didn't take one first but these same teams are the ones who would take a first in one dance and then a fourth and fifth on the other two. Some teams didn't even place in one routine at all. People can talk and it doesn't matter. I wouldn't have cared if they wouldn't have won just to see how much these girls have learned and grown this year is better than any shiny trophy in a trophy case. These girls have learned lessons that they will take with them through out their whole lives. For that I am proud of all these girls.

Mahala is ninth from the left. Military at State
Mahala is the third one from the left on the middle row. Starting Military routine at State

Waiting to hear the results can be tortuous.

You just found out you won the State Championship, now what are you going to do?

SLEEP!