After dancing at football games to start the year, the varsity Longhorn Line Dance team began its preparation for the competition season. Last season, the team won the state championship in Division 4 Lyrical and Poms. The state title isn’t the only thing the team is looking to win; they will travel to Orlando, Fla., later in the season to compete at National Dance Alliance (NDA) Nationals from Feb. 14 – 16.  With three returning seniors, including captains Emma Callahan, Lily Overman and Lila Kayser, the team plans to achieve this goal by building on the leadership and success from last year.

“I am very excited for this competition season because it will be a great opportunity to be put in a higher division against tough competition, which will really help us grow individually and as a team,” Callahan said.

Before the football season, Longhorn Line held a tryout to create a competition and gameday roster. Once tryouts were over, coaches Leshay Reed and Rachel Money decided who would be on the team and began practicing new dances. The team attended a nationwide dance training program that hosts camps and clinics on college campuses during the offseason  (UDA)  to improve their skills and practice together. Through the camp, they learned routines for home football games and pep rallies. While their gameday team performs at football games, the competition team will perform in front of judges at the state and national levels. The competition team will continue to dance through early March. In that time, they will compete against local high school programs.

“We have [to improve our] time management. We have to figure out how to use our practice time the best. When we complete the competition choreography, they learn the dances and after that’s done, we can keep getting better as a team to set ourselves up for success later in the season,” Money said.

With the team having a competitive focus and drive for the competition season, practices have become more intense. The team has to go through long and new routines to try to focus on all parts of dancing to prepare for the competition.

“At our practices, we try to mix a lot of different approaches, and we do conditioning to build up stamina. We work on skills and foundational elements of dancing, and then we [run] our dances,” Money said.

 Following the success of a state championship win, the team was moved to a higher division to compete against tougher teams. Although this change has occurred, the team’s focus and determination to achieve their goals have stayed the same. 

“This season will be great because not only do we have most of our team from last year, but we also have a ton of strong new dancers who joined this year, and I really feel like all the work we have put in will really pay off,” sophomore Sophia Stricker said.

Once the tryout is over, the freshmen join the team and participate in practices that last the whole summer, starting at the end of their eighth-grade year. The team practices year-round at school and at studios to improve their skills. There are five new freshmen, and all of them are on both the gameday and competition teams. 

“Being on the competition team my first year means a lot because the team is all super close together, and it makes practicing and competing more fun since I am doing it with my friends,” freshman Sophia Gordon said.

The Longhorn Line has two big goals: to defend their title as state champions and compete at nationals. With tougher competition, the team is working harder than ever to achieve its goals. 

“Our main goal is to win [the state championship], but we really want to have fun doing it, and build our bond while working really hard dancing as a team,” Stricker said.