Fox High captures more national dance titles; Seckman turns in strong performance

The Fox High School Warriorettes dance team came home with two more national titles, and the Seckman High JagSwag dance team had two top-five performances at the National Dance Alliance National Championship.

The Warriorettes won their fourth straight national Small Varsity Kick title and captured a second straight national crown in Small Varsity Game Day, and the Seckman High JagSwag finished second in Small Varsity Team Performance and fifth Small Varsity Pom.

Fox High’s varsity team also finished fourth in Small Varsity Pom and earned the Sportsmanship Award. The school’s junior varsity squad took second in Game Day and Team Performance and fifth in Pom.

“It was incredible,” Warriorettes head coach Paige Winkler said. “All of our routines had done very well all season. We took regional grand champion at the NDA Blue Springs regional with our kick routine. We went into the weekend really confident and with great leadership with my seven seniors on varsity.”

Along with their two top-five finishes, the JagSwag squad returned with the Superior Sportsmanship Award for a second straight year.

“It was awesome,” JagSwag head coach Hayley Garr said. “The girls did absolutely amazing. They work so hard for so many months. They really do have to have the mental stamina, grit and work ethic to get to this point. The trip exceeded our expectations.”

Warriorettes varsity team members include: Hannah Ball, Ella Blase, Jesi Bretz, Abbi Roberts, Lacey Rosenberg, Layla Schutte, Taylor Schwalbe, Jaci Gordon, Kya Johnson and Juliet Booker.

The Fox High junior varsity team members are: Kaylie Brunner, Zoey Calhoun, Grace Coleman, Leila Dukic, Stevie Dugan, Vera Harrison, Annie Kokenis, Grace Loesekam, Olivia Moravec, Ava Palazzolo, Arieana Schaffer, Peyton Schmitz, Summer Shuman, Elma Smajlovic, Fiona Starkey, Remi Stegmann and Bri Tappel. Meghan Bieg is the junior varsity team head coach and Emily Mattler is an assistant coach.

The JagSwag varsity team members are: Rachel Barbeau, Addy Greiner, Rylee Hensley, Grace Moeckel, Abigail Orth, Tessa Rebsamen, Zoey Stark, Brielle Williams, Madison Williams and Taylor Williams. Casey Murphy and Natalie Mahoney are the team’s assistant coaches.

The NDA championship was held Feb. 14-16 at the Hilton Orlando Resort in Orlando, Fla.

Fox High

Winkler said capturing a fourth straight national kick title was the team’s season goal.

“We always say that if you get to No. 4, you have built a legacy,” she said. “We leaned into it all season.”

The Warriorettes performed their kick routine to Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” They finished with a score of 94.3, topping Chesterton High’s 93.1667.

Winkler said the music selection is not typical for kick routines due to its fast pace and how the team told a story throughout their performance.

“We leaned into the fiddle playing and tell a little bit of the story,” she said. “That is not typical of the kick category. I think that gave us a step ahead.”

Winkler said putting together unique routines has allowed Fox High to keep its edge in the national competition.

When the team won the title in 2023, it performed to the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” which Winkler said pushed the limits of what it is expected in kick.

In 2024, the Warriorettes performed to Crystal Waters’ “100% Pure Love,” which highlighted the dancers’ personalities.

In 2025, the squad kicked to The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” making the performance more about the emotion behind the music.

“All four of our routines over the past four years have been very different,” Winkler said. “We have gone into all of them trying to be unexpected.”

Winkler said a Game Day routine is made up of a one-minute dance to the school’s fight song, a one-minute sideline performance and a one-minute halftime performance.

The Warriorettes won that title with a 93.1667, topping Mill Valley’s 92.75. Fox High also won the Game Day title in 2023 and finished second in the category in 2024.

“It is cool to see them on the stage showing their love and pride for their school,” Winkler said. “It brings Fox High School to the national stage. It allows them to be proud of their school.

“We kicked during our halftime routine. It is always a crowd pleaser. We have added signs and more crowd interaction over the years. That has been a judge pleaser.”

Winkler said the team hit a milestone achievement before finishing fourth in Pom, which typically has the most teams competing.

Because of the number of teams, Pom has a preliminary round, which is divided into three groups, and semifinal round before the final. The teams that finish first in the preliminary round groups automatically advance to the final.

Fox High won its preliminary group with a 90.1667. The team had the same score in the final, which was won by Elhorn High with a 93.5667.

“For the first time ever, we auto-advanced to the final,” Winkler said. “It was something that had been a distant goal that we wanted to do some day. To auto-advance and place fourth in a category that is so large is a really big deal and something we are proud of.”

Winkler said the Sportsmanship Award means as much to her as the national titles.

“We say all the time that they can be beautiful dancers, but we want them to be beautiful humans,” she said. “For others to recognize that they are going above and beyond and cheering on other teams, even those they compete against, is a big deal.”

Winkler said the junior varsity team’s performance was impressive, and she is proud of the squad.

“They are competing against teams of all sizes and technical abilities,” she said. “For them to come home as national runners-up in two categories is a really big deal. We hold our JV to a high standard, and they always rise to the occasion. We are so proud of them for that.”

Seckman High

Garr said JagSwag’s third-place finish in Team Performance was impressive considering the squad scrapped its routine just more than a month before the national competition.

“We had it choreographed in August,” said Garr, whose team took second in Team Performance last year. “It wasn’t a number we wanted to compete with, so we redid the entire routine starting in the last week of December. The fact we were able to place where we did having done what few teams have done, essentially having two different routines to the same music in the same year, is really cool. I told the girls that in and of itself is the win for us.”

Seckman High scored a 90.4 in the Team Performance final. Southmoore High took first with a 92.4889.

The JagSwag’s dance had a “Super Mario Bros.” video game theme. Garr said each dance style in the two-minute routine, which includes kick, hip hop, jazz and pom, had a theme based on the video game’s worlds.

She said the kick routine was grass, jazz was ice, jazz was desert and pom was the final world, which was Bowser’s castle, the level when Mario typically rescues Princess Peach from the series’ main villain.

“It was super fun,” Garr said. “We walked past people in the hallway, saying, ‘We need to watch that dance.’ People even said, ‘Do the Mario jump,’ when we went up to get our trophy.

“Team performance is something we really love. Being able to showcase that these girls excel in four very different styles of dance in a two-minute period, even for me, is amazing to watch. It is hard to excel in all of those areas.”

Seckman High’s pom routine had a glitz-and-glam theme with the performers dancing to a mix of music that included “Material Girl,” “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” and “Glamorous.”

The JagSwag scored an 84.8667 to finish fifth.

“We loved that routine,” Garr said. “They danced in a powder blue, rhinestone glitz costume.”

Garr said the Superior Showmanship Award was earned because of the squad’s Team Performance, and she was proud to see them capture the award for a second straight year.

“It acknowledges their overall performance,” she said. “It is based on their showmanship, projecting to the judges, performing with their bodies and faces, and being able to tell a story.”