Even though COVID-19 dampened Liberty’s drill team spirit, hampering team growth during recent years of recovery, the new members of the 2024-2025 school year ushered in enthusiasm and vigor. Now, six girls have joined the older members, bringing a fresh, energetic spirit to the team.
“Our team pre-COVID was around 20 people, and this year it’s at 14, so it’s definitely smaller than it has been in the past,” Liberty’s drill coach, Jennifer Poulson said. “[The new members] brought new energy to the team- just having new people that are excited to be there, that’s been fun.”
Among the new members are Sophie Cao (9), Riviarra Virk (9), and Vivian Zhou (10), all of whom have backgrounds in dance. The young drill members are enthusiastic about improving their dancing skills.
“The reason I joined drill is because I have a very strong passion for dance, and I really wanted to take my previous dance background and put it to good use,” Zhou said.
Cao expanded on other reasons she joined drill for.
“I did dances as a sport when I was younger; it’s just a really fun thing to just go through,” Cao said. “I figured that drill would be a way to get involved in my school community.”
Virk has also danced since childhood, therefore deepening her relationship with drill.
“I’ve been dancing since I was eight years old, and drill is kind of like Liberty’s dance team, so I thought it would be a really good opportunity to join a school sport and make new friends,” Virk said.
As Cao, Virk, and Zhou are new, the upperclassmen and long-time members have been helping them learn the ropes.
“Everyone is really welcoming, especially the captains,” Cao said. “It also helps that fellow freshmen are on the team, so we can learn together.”
The new members recognize how much the captains do to support them.
“Lily Warner (12), Grace Kim (10), and Alivia Piha (11) work really hard to choreograph our routines and make this team a cohesive unit,” Zhou said.
With help from both coaches and other members, the new members are able to adjust more easily into the team.
“The coach does a really good job of explaining what we need to do and how we need to do it,” Virk said.
According to their coach, the team works well together as they prepare for upcoming competitions, especially with the hardworking new members.
“I can really tell that they practice outside of practice and work really hard to learn their routine,” Poulson said. “They’re really stepping up to the plate, working on building those new skills and trying to catch up to where the upperclassmen are at from being on the team for multiple years.”
As practices move forward, the young members strive to perfect their performances and keep an optimistic mindset on how competitions will go.
“It’s going to be a little bit tricky with getting to adapt to the new things, but I’m excited because it’s something different,” Virk said.
The new members persevere as they adjust to the strenuous training and the big goal of winning competitions.
“There’s a lot of people that will be more talented than you, but it’s important to focus on getting better yourself,” Cao said.
The Liberty drill team stands together and raises one another up to meet the challenge of competing with a new team.
“The importance of teamwork and pushing to the limit help us bridge that gap between being an inexperienced member versus being a varsity member,” Zhou said.
