Most sports teams are limited to a single season: fall, winter, or spring. But the performance teams at Shorewood have competitions starting as early as late fall and going all the way to May. The determination and resilience that these teams have as they tackle competitions help them to score well and fight for a place at state.

Cheer:

The cheer competition season starts all the way back in November and concludes around the end of January, which is when the state competition takes place. Senior Kennedy Mallow talked about how practices start to pick up in pace as the season progresses. “As we learn the routines, we run them full out. We put everything in, and we run those over and over, so we have a lot of repetition,” Mallow said. 

With intense practices almost every day, the team stays focused by running through the routine the morning of a competition while warming up. Cheer pushes to improve their scores every competition and will have the opportunity to make a good impression at the state competition at the end of January. 

Flags:

The flag team began competition season this year by starting strong, qualifying for state at their first competition back in November. Hard work and dedication help to keep the team’s flags flying as they continue to push themselves in preparation for competitions. 

Unlike most of our performance teams, not everyone on flags gets to perform at competitions. “We have to each perform it, then if you make it, you get to perform it on the actual day,” senior Julia Nakayama said.

While this makes it so not all of the team members get to participate, everyone still works hard to make sure that the team does the best they can. With early mornings and late nights, the team doesn’t let the long hours sway them from performing at their best.

Drill:

Drill, led by its three captains, has already completed two out of three of their competitions. While they placed an impressive third at their first competition, the team faced setbacks due to sickness, which affected their second competition. 

Thankfully, the team did not let it get them down as they work endlessly to perfect their routines for their upcoming competition. “We have two routines we work on: our military routine and a pom routine. A military routine is more skills-based, pom is more energy and excitement,” senior Clel Howard said.

While the team uses the same routines they learn over the summer, they edit and change the routines based on the judges’ critiques made during competitions. Howard said that one of the best parts of going to competitions is getting to witness the passion that envelops everyone who participates. The willingness to change and the drive to perform well are just some of the reasons why Drill has placed well in past years.

Hip-hop:

With two competitions under their belt, they continue to stun the judges with their routines. With intense practice happening daily during the two weeks leading up to a competition, Hip-hop aims to perform a clean dance.

Junior Della McFarlane, who has been in hip-hop for the past two years, talks about the routine of a competition day. “It’s pretty fun, we get to Shorewood around 6 a.m., and we get ready… and then we’ll drive to whatever school we are competing at,” she said. Like most performance team competitions, the competitions take up the whole day, from early in the morning to late at night. 

This year the team is smaller than past, creating a close, interconnected community on the team. With traditions, such as “Guardian Angel,” where all of the team members pick another team member at random and buy them their favorite snacks and drinks before a competition, the team has been able to bond with each other easily.

Lasting from December until May, which is when state is, Hip-hop continues to work hard together to do their best this competition season.