Favorite Paysetter Memories

Since I have been cleaning out files and going through all of my things at Payson, I have been remembering some of the things that the Paysetters did while I was coaching at Payson. These are a few of the pictures that I have come across. I'm sure there will be more in another post!

First, one year for the Freedom Festival parade on July 4th in Provo, the Paysetters, along with the Juab drill team,were invited to represent the armed forces in the parade "pre-show". It was a great honor. It was televised on KSL. Here are a few pictures from the event:

Some of the girls used these red, white, & blue wings.

Some of the Paysetters, dancing in Navy uniforms.

Some of the Paysetters, performing in Air Force uniforms.

Another great memory, is the green army man routine. This idea came when I was in Disneyland on tour with the drill team and dance company. Nichole, Kreg, and I were going up the escalator to go on Space Mountain. We looked down and there was a Toy Story show going on. There were these men dressed as the green army men toys--life size and their costumes were so cool--they looked plastic and they were totally green! Nichole looked at me and said,"You should do that for drill next year." So, we all met the next day and watched the Toy Story show--took some pictures of the costumes, and that became my quest for that summer. To get costumes like the ones I saw at Disneyland!

This is my nephew, Jackson, with some of the Paysetters at State Drill.

I think he had just woke up from a nap. But, Amy and Jackson came to both Region and State. Nichole told me that she was sitting near them and she heard Jackson trying to yell down to me while the Paysetters were getting ready to perform. Everyone loved this routine! It was a crowd favorite.The first time we performed the routine at a competition, we walked into the practice gym and it went quiet and everyone looked at the girls, like who is that team? It was like we were movie stars! The girls on the team commented to me that is was so fun to perform and see all of the video cameras go up and turn on when they performed this routine. We were known all throughout the drill team world. We placed in the top three at every competition with the routine that year. It was so much fun! Years later, I was at a dance workshop and the teacher that was teaching the routine had all of us introduce ourselves and when I said my name and that I was the drill team coach at Payson, she said, "You're the school that did the green army men routine--that was so cool!" I'll never forget that.

Here we all are in the costumes--minus the hats and make-up.

Another favorite novelty routine and memory, was our flapper/gangster routine. It always won trophies also. Best time would have to be at the Rocky Mountain Drill Team Competition, we won 1st place! The girls were so thrilled--jumping up and down, so excited. But, that meant we had to stay and perform in the finals that night--a long day had just got even longer, but we didn't care--we were there with all of the "elite". All teams that placed first got to perform that night as part of the Miss Drill pageant. It was great--too bad our bubble was popped the next week, when the same routine was disqualified because of an illegal, dangerous move. OOH, we held a girl while standing on top of our stage platform. That meant it was a stunt on top of a prop--illegal. Three girls were holding a girl across their arms in the end pose of the routine, no one had spotted it until Region, not even me.

Here are the Paysetters in the Flapper/gangster costumes:

Traveling on the tours would have to be another great memory of coaching at Payson. Here I am in California with Nichole and Kreg. Nichole was over the dance company and we always toured together. We had a lot of fun!

Here we are at Catalina Island:Our combined groups on our first trip to Florida:

This is the first group I took to California. It was just the drill team that year--the dance teacher didn't want to go with us, so I was bound and determined to take the drill team on a trip. Even if I had to do it all by myself! Probably one of the best trips had to be the New York City Nationals trip. The board denied it the first time, but approved it the next year. Here we are with all of the trophies we won: Of course, another great memory would be the times that we won Region! The Paysetters won Region three times while I was coaching. The first time, we had won, but because of a tabulation error, they didn't give us the trophy until February. Here the team is with the trophy. It was the last home basketball game, so just the seniors were performing. Payson was playing American Fork. Their drill team had been announced as the Region champs at Region--which was incorrect--they were actually third! So, their drill team presented the Region trophy to the team at halftime of the basketball game. It was great, but we didn't get that moment at the competition.

PHS Paysetters - Region Champs - 2004-05

In 2007-08, the Paysetters won region again, this time we got our moment and it was even at our school! It was the best--the team had worked really hard. We even won the overall 1st place spot for state. The southern region that only has two 4A schools, had to compete with our region. We competed separately, but then to determine the seeding for state, we had to compete with each other. Payson won first overall! We beat Dixie and Snow Canyon! That just added to our excitement!

PHS Paysetters - Region Champs 2007-08

This year, 2008-09, we won Region again! We placed first in all categories. It was another great year. No one expected Payson to do well because we were small--we had lost girls to Salem and we didn't quite have the talent we had had before. But the team was determined and so was I--I was not going to let the team down. I did all that I could to help prepare the team. We did it--they did it!

PHS Paysetters - Region Champs-2008-09

There are many more great times/memories at Payson. I will post some more later.