The Owatonna Dance team has been a program at the high school for seven years now. Since the start, the team has grown a lot, ranging from the amount of girls on the team to their skill sets. ODT has its biggest varsity kick team ever this year, consisting of 17 girls. They have about 40 girls in total on the team this year, which is pretty consistent with the number of girls on the team for the last three years.
They had their first competition on Nov. 18, in Burnsville. At this competition, varsity kick was the only team to compete and placed third. This was a big accomplishment for the team because this was the first time they had ever performed this early on in the season. On Dec. 2, the team had their first full team competition. All of Owatonna’s teams took first place finishes at this competition. Junior captain, Kennedy Katzug said, “All five of the teams took first place which was super cool and very exciting for the younger girls.”
This past weekend on Dec. 9, the team made history by hosting their very first home competition, which took place in the main gym at OHS. The team had been preparing this past week by putting in all of their effort at every practice so that they could do their very best at the competition. They ended up placing first in four out of five of their routines and they got second place for the other routine. The competition was a huge success. Head coach Nicole Gefre said, “I think it was an amazing first event. We had so much support from our board, boosters, parents and volunteers. It was fun to have all the community support in the stands as well.”
After a very successful season last year with the varsity team placing first in jazz and third place overall at Big 9, the team has some big goals set for this season. This year their goal is to win Big 9 as a whole, meaning that they would get first in kick and jazz. Another goal for the team is to improve their score sheets and to add in harder and more difficult skills into their dances.
In order to achieve these goals they want to improve on things. Junior captain Chloe Walerius said, “We are definitely trying to improve on our stamina and our cardio for kick and then for jazz, definitely like difficulty and turns.”
The Owatonna Dance team’s next performance is on Dec. 21, during halftime at the Owatonna Girls Basketball game.
