The Silver Stars competed at the Wentzville Holt Regional on Jan 6. The team placed third in Small Game Day and second in both 1A Precision Jazz and 2A Pom.
Dance coach Erin Taylor said the team hoped to improve from the last competition and did so by performing with confidence.
“Every competition that we go into our goals are to level up from our competition before, especially coming off of our second competition in December. We had some big goals that we wanted to achieve. Our biggest goal being that we wanted to take the floor with confidence and feel proud of our performances and I think we definitely achieved those in all three routines,” Taylor said.
Junior Allie Cross said the team focused on staying positive and proud throughout the competition instead of worrying about where they placed in the end.
“Our practices have been really productive so we’re trying to have lots of energy and keep the positive momentum going throughout the day. We were more focused on that instead of the arbitrary goals of winning first overall. Instead, we focus on coming off dances that we were proud of and showed off the practice that we have done the past couple weeks,” Cross said.
Senior Jordan Stevener said the team had various specific highlights in each of their dances.
“I think in pom whenever [senior] Shea [Turner] starts out with her toe touch it’s really strong. In jazz I think our group turns in the beginning [were the highlight], and gameday I think our whole performance routine really sets it apart from the other parts of it,” Stevener said.
Taylor said that the team’s energy and intensity was impressive and well perceived by the judges.
“[For] game day, our energy was incredible. Our audience interaction was really, really great. We got a lot of great comments about that from audience members and from judges. In jazz our intensity was really good and we were clean which is awesome and then pom was our final routine and we had tons of energy and we were really able to showcase the work that we have put into it on our skills,” Taylor said.
The productive practice the night before, Cross said, raised spirits for the competition.
“Going into the competition we felt really good for the most part. The practice we had the night before was a really good practice. We got lots of good stuff done and it was super positive and loving with our team atmosphere so we felt really good going into the competition this weekend,” Cross said.
Taylor said the team’s success at the competition was prompted by hard work over the week leading up to it.
“We worked really hard last week. This is the first time that we have competed directly coming off of winter break so it was a little stressful but I feel like the work we put in really showed by Friday night at the end of practice so that we can feel really confident going into Saturday,” Taylor said.
The team went on to compete at UDA Nationals, where they placed fifth in Small Varsity DII Game Day for the school’s first placement in a national competition.
