Chasse toward the heart of summer with 2 coaches at the head of high-achieving programs, but with crazy-different circumstances. Hear how Coach Roberts from Elmwood guided her girls to Day 2 at IHSA state with an eye-catching, themed pom routine...all done by athletes with no formal training before joining the team! We also get to know how Coach Ortiz and her York dancers handle the pressures of being a top-tier 3A team, and the roadmap of going from JV to varsity as both a coach and as a team member. Happy July!
Ninety IHSA teams meet up in Bloomington every winter for IHSA state, but their backgrounds and circumstances can vary wildly. West-central Illinois pom specialists Elmwood came out of sectionals on fire. They played their cards right and landed among all the stellar Day 2 teams in 1A, and Coach Emily Roberts shares with us all the drilling and repetition it took to bring that kind of polish to the IHSA state floor...AND the crafty creativity it takes to come up with a very specific theme. And her small town team? Girls with no formal training but plenty of athletic ability. Around 1 out of every 10 girls at Elmwood are on this Day 2 team! Then there's 3A York, whose dancers wear the pressure of being recent state champs with a lot of grace and determination. Coach Alyssa Ortiz talks about how she keeps the pressure in check and lets the team thrive on their dancers' desire and hunger to perform at a high level, especially when it counts at the end of the season. We chat about the sisterhood of being on this elite team, along with her own path from JV coach to elite 3A varsity coach. Alyssa also shares her approach to helping kids who are on the JV-varsity borderline to cross over solidly into varsity territory! Sprinkled elsewhere throughout Episode 11 are all the details on our new 8CA Technique Sessions: what they can do for your team, how they're way different from any other instructional experience out there, how we built extra value into the pricing, and how we found the best teachers that perfectly fit the 8CA approach and philosophy!