Cheering for Change

The Reporter • May 201215(sports)

BOUNDARIES

Agha shares his motivation for trying out for dance team hali wimbush reporter

Math teacher Natalie Steutermann will be the coach for next year’s cheerleading squad. When the previous cheer coach Amanda Gerken

resigned Steutermann jumped on the opportunity to be coach. “I knew if I didn’t do it I would regret it”, Stuet-

ermann said “I think it’s really important for a high school to have a strong cheerleading squad in order to be a positive influence on the students and to pro-mote school spirit.” This will not be her first year coaching

cheerleading. Steutermann coached this year at the middle school

and prior to that coached cheer at Manhattan High School for the 2008-09 school year. As a new coach there will be changes made, and

new goals set. This past school year there were only nine girls on the squad, but in the next few years Steutermann hopes the squad will grow to 16 mem-bers. Steutermann would like to see more stunting in their routines. Tryouts were on March 30 at the high school. Ju-

nior Samantha Wagner said she and other girls who tried out had to perform a group cheer, group dance, an individual chant with moves and stunts consisting of a toe touch and any jump of choice. The girls were judged by Steutermann on their

knowledge of fundamentals and techniques, their teacher recommendations and not having any grades below a C-. “Miss Steutermann is so enthusiastic and it’s going

to be a great year,” Wagner said. Along with a new cheer coach, the upcoming fresh-

man on the squad will be Madison Folsom, Ashleigh Gorges, Madison Klaasmeyer, Emma Phipps and Amanda Wood.Returning cheerleaders will be upcoming sopho-

mores Madison Armbruster and Mariah Dairy, up-coming junior Morgan Driskell, and upcoming se-niors Abby Fletcher and Wagner. “I’m super-excited about being the new coach and

I know I’ve got a really great group this year,” Steu-termann said.

Changes 4

katey colwell reporter

Dance team has always been associated with feminine accessories such as be-dazzled jackets, sparkling hairbands and ruby-red lipstick. However, this year junior Husain Agha

challenged the stereotype by trying out for the dance team. Junior Cooper Sims-West planned to

try out for the dance team, but decided not to. Sims-West said some st udents were not

supportive about the idea. “Guys trying out is not a big deal,” Sims-

West said. “When people become upset because people aren’t doing what is con-sidered gender appropriate, we set our evolution as a society back. We weren’t doing this to make a scene.

We did it for fun and, had we made it in, we would have taken it seriously.” Bonnie Dumpert, dance team coach,

said having males on the team would be a positive. “I think this is a compliment to the qual-

ity of our dance team that boys are inter-ested in the team,” Dumpert said. “I have actually had a boy on the middle school dance team, so I wasn’t surprised that sev-eral boys were interested.” Junior Megan Schroeder said she

doesn’t have any opposition about the males who planned on trying out for the dance team. “I’m OK with it,” Schroeder said. “I

don’t think they will be able to meet all of the requirements, like flexibility though.”Agha decided to try out for the dance

team after he attended state as a Thespian board member. “While at a meeting, they asked if any-

one wanted to be in the dance they do for the state conference,” Agha said. “I, of course, wanted to do it because I didn’t want to do a skit. It was an either/or choice. When we got to dancing I realized

that I loved doing it and, ac-tually, I was pretty good.”At the conference, Agha

performed in front of more than 2,000 people. Anoth-er thing that hardened his resolve for trying out was when the drama department put on its production of ‘The Frogs’. “I loved all the dancing and

decided I wanted to try out,” Agha said. The boys who intended

to try out might have the chance next year to partici-pate in a halftime dance. “I would probably have prac-

tices for this sometime during the winter and the boys could perform at a basket-ball halftime,” Dumpert said. “I have not had a chance to check with KSHSAA on whether they will sanction this, so I have made no definite plans yet.” Agha didn’t make the team this year, but

Dumpert didn’t want students to become discouraged and was willing to offer rea-son behind the cuts.“Most of the time, a dancer trying out

that does not make it is not proficient enough in the technical aspect of the try-out requirements and/or cannot perform the choreography,” Dumpert said. Dumpert said that she has seen some

awesome choreography for dance teams with male performers and some horrible choreography where the male dancers were not incorporated well. “Good choreography is key,” Dump-

ert said. Dumpert said students who love danc-

ing but are not on the dance team still have opportunities to dance by trying out for the school musical. “I also recommend taking ballet and

jazz technique classes at a studio to im-prove dance technique if a student is se-rious about pursuing dance,” Dumpert said.

Dumpert said she has already started thinking about an opportunity for serious male dancers and performers and would welcome any male student who is willing to put in the time to learn a traditional hip-hop dance routine.When trying out for dance team, stu-

dents must be aware that dance team is a year-long commitment and the student must put dance team first. They also need to be comfortable performing in front of a large crowd according to Dumpert.To make the team the requirements are

to proficiently demonstrate several leaps, turns, jumps, and kicks at tryouts along with a choreographed dance that must be learned in a short period of time, accord-ing to Dumpert. Dance team members for next year

with their upcoming fall grade include upcoming freshmen, Shelbie Bennett, Lexi Weidman, Caylin Garrison, Mag-gie Fleming, upcoming sophomore, Elizabeth Schroeder, upcoming juniors, Idalis Bird, Tera Brandt, Nina Lopez, Sarah Ludwick, and upcoming seniors, Christine Bessey, Kami Crawford, Molly Delks, Megan Schroeder, and Samantha Smreker.

Dancing on the

CheeringSteutermann replaces cheer coach

Photo by Journey Capettini

Juniors Kami Crawford and Nevin McCracken dance during the winter homecoming pep rally.