News > April 3, 2008

By Jacob Bathanti | Staff writer

When students think of intercollegiate competitions, a few specific things usually spring to mind – the Bowl Championship Series, March Madness, the College World Series. But fierce competition is the norm in all athletic areas at the university, even in the less-well-known worlds of the dance and cheerleading teams.

Both these groups are headed to Daytona, Fla., April 9-12 to compete for national honors from the National Dance Association and the National Cheerleaders Association.

They had to pass through an initial screening by sending in tapes of their competition routines.

Both teams were selected to advance to Daytona. The dance team will compete in a field of 22 schools, including some ACC rivals; the cheerleading team will compete in a field of 18 at the intermediate level.

“It’s pretty significant that we’re able to go,” said senior dance team co-captain Kelly Mullen.

“For Athletics to put that amount of trust in us is a really big deal.”

Senior cheerleading co-captain Drew Jack agreed.

“We just hope we can represent the school well,” he said.

Each team will perform a two-minute, 15-second routine.

The dance team’s piece must incorporate three different styles of dance – jazz, hip-hop and pom – so as to reward a well-balanced troupe.

The cheerleaders will present a representative medley of their best game-day feats, starting with a mock-up of their game-starting cheers.

They will then move on to a selection of pyramid stunts, tumbling and other acrobatics.

In both cases, the pressure is intense to deliver a solid routine in a short space of time.

“It’s everything we do (at a game) compacted into two minutes and 15 seconds,” Jack said.

“It’s like ‘Ready, go – and smile the entire time!’” added senior co-captain Laura Waggoner. The university’s teams usually attend championships under the auspices of a different collegiate organization, but this year there was a scheduling conflict with the Universal Cheerleaders Association.

This means a clean slate for university teams at these competitions.

“We’re the wild card,” Mullen said. “We have the potential to come in and make a splash.”

That splash would be particularly impressive because of the youth of the two teams, who will be competing against teams with older, more experienced members.

Mullen and Waggoner are the only seniors on the dance team, but they bring all of their experience to the table to help teach and train their younger counterparts.

The cheerleading team is more experienced but still fairly young overall.

“It’s a good thing,” Waggoner said. “It means we’ll keep talented dancers for a few more years.”

The three seniors confessed to a degree of anxiety, as this will be their last chance to compete in a competition of this nature.

However, they also expressed a readiness to compete, as the fact that this is their final competition increases their drive to win.

As dedicated athletes, they seem to relish the opportunity to prove themselves formidable contenders.

After all, they said, there’s still the motivation of having their sports considered second-tier athletic endeavors when compared with such university sports as football and basketball.

“After they see us, they think again,” Jack said. “It’s pretty cool, once they see what we do.”

The dance and cheerleading teams will be performing in the Varsity Gym from 7-9 p.m. on April 6 as a pre-competition preview.

The event is free and open to the public.