Districts? State? Nationals? Drill has got them all, and more.
On March 9, the drill team competed at Districts and won first in kick and third in military. On March 22, drill went to State and got second in kick and first in military. And on March 17, drill competed at Nationals and got third in champion kick and second in open military. With a strong finish to their competition season, the drill team was able to end this competition season on a high note.
“We have been working really hard since early September and it’s paying off,” junior Lauren Ellis said. “I feel good about how our season turned out. We had lots of off-season preparation and training. The fact we’re all quick learners definitely helped too.”
The team normally has three or four two-hour practices a week, but during competition season, it trains every day of the week with three hour practices. In addition, the girls all train on their own by stretching to keep flexible outside of practice.
Despite all this training, however, there are still injuries. This season, the girls faced three concussions and a few strained hamstrings. Even with these obstacles, they proceeded to work hard into competition season.
When sophomore Bryn Ament was asked how to do routines while injured she said, “You just do it.”
One of the girls injured this season was senior Koko Haselman. She sustained two concussions this season. One concussion she got when she was kicked in the head during a performance and then proceeded to do multiple turns, flips, and jumps.
“The first one was during a competition. I got kicked in the head and had to go to urgent care and then to the ER. But everything ended up being okay,” Haselman said. “When I started to recover I went to practices to help out because I couldn’t stay away any longer. The team does everything together, and those people are my sisters.”
Being together so much to train has definitely brought the girls close together. Additionally, the team has competitions nearly every weekend during the season, where the girls spend upwards of 11 hours together.
“It’s weird but we call each other sisters. We are more like family than best friends. We fight and yell, but we love each other and are proud of each other,” Ament said. “When we finish a routine at competition it’s never ‘You sucked,’ it’s always ‘We all did our best and we are proud of one another.’”
With so much time spent together, the drill team has their own unique set of quirks and superstitions.
“We are a very superstitious group. If anybody says anything about winning, we all have to knock on wood. We’ll text the entire team to knock on wood. We also have lots of people who need certain people to do their hair or we will lose,” Ament said.
With lots of inside jokes and superstitious rituals, the drill team year has had a lot of success and has high hopes for next year.