Region Drill 2014

Region Drill was on January 23 at Timpview High School.  This year, we had two more schools in our region that had competing drill teams--Spanish Fork and Wasatch.  So, there would be six teams competing instead of only four.  One school would be eliminated and not go on to compete at State.

We started the day with practice, of course, and then had a team breakfast.  The team got a special gift that morning.  You would have thought they had received a million bucks by the way they acted.  They received maroon beanie hats with Ellevés embroidered on them!

 Posing with the new beanies!

Breakfast!

Eating in style!

Then we had to go to school--which seems like an eternity, even if they were excused for 4th period!  The moms decorated the bus.  Here's a few pics of the bus:

Something dancers say, which means to really do the dances well!

Our theme!

We arrived at Timpview High School and practiced our routines on the floor and checked our music.  Then is was time for dinner.  Again, the team moms decorated our table and made us feel special!

Then it was time for the competition to begin!  First is the traditional "parade of champions" where each team is introduced and comes out onto the floor together.

MMHS Ellevés

All of our performances went really well and I felt really good about them!  The music was loud, but so was our crowd!  Which is good, but I was worried the girls wouldn't be able to hear their music, but they did and they were so pumped to hear the crowd cheering so loud for them!

Soon it was time for the awards and drill down.  We did great in the drill down too!  We took 4 of the 5 places!

Announcing the winners.

Left to right:  Bryn Starkey was 2nd, Laney Melton was 3rd, Brandi Gessel was 5th, and Emily Kessinger was 1st!

Me, Emily, Markelle and Marci (my assistants)

Hero Award Winner - Brooke Coleman - with me and my assistants

All-Region Drill - Madeline Froerer, Laney Melton, and Jamie Topham

8 out of our 10 seniors were named to the Academic All-Region Team

Madeline Froerer, Bryn Starkey, Laney Melton, Hannah Harvey, Brooke Rawlings, Jamie Topham, Emily Peery, and Brynn Shaw

Well, we ended up taking 1st in Military, 1st in Dance, and 1st in Character--we swept it!  Region Champions for the second year in a row.  Back to back Region Champs!

 These are my 3-year seniors with the Region Trophy

 After celebration with our parents and fans, we headed up to our dressing room to clean up and celebrate some more.  As a tradition, I play "We are the Champions" by Queen.  The team rocked out and we kept dancing and partying to a few more songs.  They even made me and Markelle do toe touch jumps.

 Celebrating!

 So much fun!

 We partied so long, we were the last ones out of the school!

Me and the team - I love this pic!

 Markelle and the team - she's young enough to pull off wearing the beanie!

 Team pic with our awards - we don't know why we made two long lines!  It didn't make for the best picture, especially with the orange and blue bleachers in the background. 

 My team captain's aunt designed this one for us - much better!

It was a great night and now we had a week to prepare for State!  Region is always a big relief to have finished for me!  State is stressful too, but Region determines your placement at State and you have so much support there and you want to do your best for them too.  It was so great to have all of our hard work pay off so well for us!