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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| The Claremont High School Dance Team finished the 2008 season by winning a national title in the Championship Kick Division. |
Shortened dance team season full of lasting memories
The 2008 season for the Claremont High School Dance Team is over. As quickly as the season came is as quickly as the season seemed to go, but that did not stop the 18-member team from making 2008 a year to remember.
With the United Spirit Association (USA) Nationals Dance Competition at the Anaheim Convention Center being the culminating event of the season from March 7-8, CHS made sure it stood out from among the other 110-plus high schools, winning the national title in the Championship Kick division and also earning second runner-up for the Grand Champion title.
To be considered the “Grand Champion” or a runner-up to the title places a team in a prestigious position at the dance competition. The grand champ is decided based on the average of team scores from 4 different categories.
“We were really shocked,” said CHS Dance Team advisor Lisa Germano, when Claremont was announced as the second runner-up to the grand title. “I heard “mont” when we were announced but I couldn’t believe that it was us. We were in shock, really excited and pleasantly surprised. It was amazing.”
Surprise also is the word that describes what CHS Dance Team captain Delaney Black felt when Claremont was announced as a runner-up in the Grand Champion category. CHS also competed in the championship Officer, Small Lyrical and Medium Dance events.
“I remember they were naming off other teams and then I heard ‘second runner-up…Claremont,’” the CHS senior recalled. “The other teams were telling us to go up [and get our trophy]. It was a great end to the year.”
An interesting component of the 2008 squad that played a role in CHS earning second runner-up in the Grand Champion standings was the addition of a Small Lyrical routine. The score Claremont earned at the Nationals in the Small Lyrical event was one of the scores factored in when determining how CHS fared in the Grand Champion rankings.
“We had just added Small Lyrical this year and our score in that category at Nationals helped us become second runner-up because that was our 4th championship category that we competed in,” Ms. Germano explained.
Along with Delaney, co-captain Chelsea Cobos, Victoria Castillo, Jeannie Dang, Heather Fox, Hillary French, Emma Haas, Nicki Inglese, Stephanie Inglese, Destiny McIntyre, Caitlin Myers, Anne-Marie Pietersma, Samantha Rago, Robyn Schmidt, Julia Sutton, Jayme Ung, Taylor Ward and Alexandria Wilson made up this year’s championship squad. The group has accumulated trophies throughout the season, starting with first-place trophies in all divisions at West Covina on January 26 and ending with 3 trophies from the recent national competition in Anaheim.
This season was an unusually short affair for Claremont as the Nationals marked only the 5th competition for the dance squad in 2008. Following the event at West Covina towards the end of January, CHS hosted the Claremont High School Festival of Champions the following week and then competed at Arlington High School and the Southern California USA Regionals in succeeding weeks before the Nationals.
“It all went by so fast,” Chelsea Cobos said. “But it was a lot of fun and I like that we all still got to know each other. We did very well [this year] and there was never a time when I thought we were terrible. I miss it already.”
The short season wasn’t the only challenge that the dance team faced and overcame this season. This year’s CHS roster was significantly younger than recent years but the level of maturity all the members showed—whether underclassmen or upperclassmen—went a long way in allowing the team to gel quickly.
Yet according to Delaney, what also helped was that the members of the dance team came together with a similar attitude and an identical desire to not just be a competitive squad but a team that could become a national champion.
“We pulled it together fast,” Delaney said. “This was definitely a talented team and there was a lot more of a bigger drive to work hard this year. We had a lot of fun but the girls also knew when to work.”
Chelsea agrees.
“This year the girls had a lot of character,” she said. “Our drive was strong and we were also all really positive. We worked with each other and did things for each other, not to mention that Lisa [Germano] does a lot as well.”
While months of work were put into making the season a success, there is one moment that will continue to stand out to Ms. Germano when she reflects on the season.
“I remember before that I was so excited when we won but this year, my excitement came from watching their reaction and watching them jump up and down,” she said. “All of our hard work paid off.”
—Landus Rigsby
