JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) — Friday’s home game marked David Crockett High School’s new dance team’s first performance.
The team was formed in May and is comprised of five girls. It was sparked by an email sent by now-team coach, Carsen Giles.
“I reached out and wanted to see if there was interest again, and they did a poll around the school and there was some interest,” said Giles.
Giles said a team had tried to form in the past, but it fell through.
The team consists of freshmen and juniors. Giles says the girls went through an audition process and also had to have a teacher’s recommendation and good grades.
“I just wanted to make sure they have an outstanding personality and were going to be able to be a good teammate and be able to lead this team and make us look good,” said Giles.
Some members of the team have no prior dance experience.
“Well originally, I started out as a volleyball player, so dance was really not my forte,” said dance team member, Adriawna Kuykendall. “It’s all brand new…[Dance team] gave me something new to try, and then I really just fell in love with it.”
Team captain, Julie Maupin, was a softball player before pursuing dance.
“I think it’s a really big opportunity, especially for me since I’ve never done anything like this,” said Maupin. “And it’s just a really big honor in order to be a captain to these girls, these amazing girls.”
The team is enjoying productive practices.
“We both have a little bit of serious and fun at the practices that I really appreciate because you can’t show up and it be dead serious the entire time,” said Maupin. “You’ve got to have a little fun in between.”
“Whenever we’re at practice, a lot of the girls, if you can’t do something, everybody just picks each other up and we’re all super confident with each other,” said Kuykendall. “And we just cheer each other on all of the time.”
Giles said she’s proud to have been able to make this team possible. She had the team participate in a Universal Dance Association (UDA) camp over the summer. All of them are all-American dancers. Giles said she also tweaked the school’s fight song to better fit a dance routine.
“And so really, just being able to teach them all that I know from being on, I was on ETSU’s dance team,” said Giles. “So, being able to bring that here and being able to mentor these young ladies.”
Giles said she plans to coordinate a new routine with the Crockett cheerleaders for basketball season once football ends.
