Lindsay places third at Valley, Strathmore fourth
CLOVIS — The competitive dancers moved in rhythm to the blaring music, performing routines they’d spent hours and weeks rehearsing for this moment.
The moment was the CIF Central Section Cheer and Dance Championships at Buchanan High School this past Saturday, and the performers only had 2 minutes, 30 seconds to shine.
Competing in the Dance Division III portion of Valley, Lindsay High School’s dancers placed third while Strathmore took fourth. Madera South won the Valley title with Firebaugh finishing second.
“They did pretty good,” LHS head coach, Myisha Bullock, said. “Their energy was good but we have some things we need to fix before Nationals in two weeks.”
Bullock is the Cardinals and Lindsay Unified School District’s Director of Dance Performance and Cheerleading. Along with her daughter, she created the choreography for the Cardinals’ routine and cut the music used for the dance too.
“I do it all,” Bullock said with a laugh.
The Cardinals have competed in and won the CIF Invitationals and Clovis Classic in Varsity Pom Novice. At southern section USA Regionals in southern California, they won first place in Varsity Gametime Dance and third place in Varsity Pom Novice. The team also placed second at USA Regionals in Varsity Pom Novice at Clovis High. On Feb. 14-16, the Cardinals conclude their season at USA Nationals.
Despite competing several times this season, LHS senior captain, Giselle Lopez, said she was nervous before Valley. “You’re always thinking, ‘I want to do my best,’” she said.
But Lopez did have a good time, even with the nerves. She said, “Today it was really fun but nerve wracking. But I really enjoyed it because you spend time with your friends.”
At Valley, both Lindsay and Strathmore competed in Division III of the dance championships, which is also known as novice. There are three levels: novice, intermediate and advanced. In the first two divisions, dancers have limitations on what they can do while advanced has no limitations.
“Dance divisions are determined by technical ability. All routines should include tricks and dance technique and emphasize synchronization and visual effects using pom,” read the program for the Valley Championships. It also notes Division III, the novice division, has technical limitations of: single turn, leg hold, forward/stag leap.
Unlike many schools with bigger programs and devoted full-time dance or cheer instructors, Strathmore also went the in house choreography route and received a big help from dancer Isaac Cavazos.
“We did the whole choreography on our own,” sophomore captain, Hannah Lee, said. “We didn’t have any professional help. (Cavazos), he made the first half of the routine on his own because … he’s in the dance pathway and he’s a really amazing dancer. Like he’s super good at dancing.”
Lee and Cavazos, along with teammates Audrey Estrada, Ashlyn Stallions and Katerin Rocha, and coach Cecilia Deluna came up with the routine. Deluna was on the Spartans’ team in 2017 when cheerleading became a CIF sport and Strathmore won Valley in Division IV Dance/Pop.
The Spartans were the first team to compete and stood out immediately with a team of just five dancers. Cheer advisor and head coach, Torri Lee, said they had a small team because their seniors decided to understandably focus on their academics and prepare for college.
“We just asked the rest of the squad who wanted to participate and five put their hands up and these five came to this competition,” coach Torri said. “They’ve put in more hours in the month of January, to put this entire dance together, than I think they would’ve put in an entire school year of cheer practice. They’ve been doing probably four to five days a week, three hours a day, just trying to get here.”
The Spartans may have been small in numbers, but they were big in the way they supported each other and took pride in their work.
“It was so much fun,” Hannah said. “I love the girls I performed with; it was just like a blast. We worked so hard and I know we pushed through even when it was tough, being frustrated at practice at not getting stuff and we would still push through and be like, ‘It’s OK, it’s all going to be worth it as soon as we step on that floor.’
“And then soon as we got here we were all excited and then we went on the (practice) mat and we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Just don’t drop a pom pom. Just don’t drop a pom pom.’”
Hannah said in the buildup to the team performing, they were all excited and prayed before they went out. Torri said she could hear the team continuing to encourage each other during the pre-competition prayer. During the performance the team continued encouraging each other.
“And then at the very end, we all hugged each other and we were all like, ‘We just did that!’,” Hannah said. “Literally it was all that work for that one smile at the end, for all of us to be like, ‘Oh my God, we just did it!’
“And the coaches came, gave us hugs and were like, ‘We’re so proud of you guys.’ I think it was all worth it to hear our coaches were proud of us and what we did. And how much effort, blood, sweat and tears. There were people crying at some points like, ‘I cannot do this again.’ We all just pushed through till the very end. It was a lot of fun.”
The Spartans dance team was made up of two sophomores and three juniors, all of whom Torri expect to be back next season.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Spartans are champions!
On Dec. 7, 2019, Strathmore’s junior varsity team placed first in its division at the CIF Invitational Championships at Buchanan High. Lee said she was proud of this group.
The team was made up of Andrea Valencia, Na Yala Penn-Martin, Kadence Buck, Ulani Marino, Kaylah Grijalva, Mayra Juarez, Kaila Saechao, Destiney Garza, Jose Ledesma, Jezzica Valadez, Nuviana Martinez and Lucero Cisneros. Sajara Loomis and Halle Knutson were team captains and they were coached by Cecilia Deluna.
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February 04, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Valley Dance: Worth all the blood, sweat and tears - Porterville Recorder
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