Fox High School’s Warriorettes dance team is a national champion again.
The Warriorettes captured the National Dance Alliance’s (NDA) Small Varsity Kick title during the national championships held March 8-10 in Orlando, Fla. The squad won its first national kick crown last year after finishing second in 2021 and 2022.
The varsity championship was not the only first-place hardware the Warriorettes brought home from Florida. The junior varsity team won the team performance title at the competition.
“Varsity won about 10 minutes before JV,” Warriorettes head coach Paige Winkler said. “It is pretty incredible that all 25 of my kids got to come home with a well-deserved jacket (one of the national champion prizes) and two very large trophies.”
Fox’s varsity team also took second place in the Small Varsity Game Day category and finished eighth in the Medium Varsity Pom competition. Small teams are made up of 10 or fewer performers, and medium teams have 11 to 15 performers.
Fox’s junior varsity team finished second in Junior Varsity Game Day.
Performing, from left, are Addison Fore, Emilia McCann, Savannah Schindler, Sidney Sebold, Sophia Zouglas, Ella Blase, Amaya Williams, Lacey Rosenberg and Taylor Schwalbe.
The Warriorettes varsity team members include Savannah Schindler, Sidney Sebold, Amaya Williams, Emilia McCann, Chelsea Flotho, Sophia Zouglas, Jordynn Adams, Ella Blase, Taylor Schwalbe, Lacey Rosenberg, Ali Key and Addison Fore.
Junior varsity team members include Alexis Duncan, Allison Heilich, Gabbie Bauer, Tayler Jones, Savannah Tappel, Hannah Ball, Jesi Bretz, Summer Shuman, Abbi Roberts, Ava Palazzolo, Kayley Greene, Kaylie Brunner and Olivia Guinn.
Along with Winkler, the coaching staff consists of junior varsity coach Meghan Scott and assistant coaches Julia Sciaroni and Madi Patterson.
Last year, the Warriorettes won national titles in Small Varsity Kick and Small Varsity Game Day.
“We knew double titling again was a pretty unrealistic goal,” Winkler said. “We went into it thinking we had two opportunities to win a title, and we did everything we could to assure we would win one of the two categories and bring home what we deserve.”
Seckman High School’s dance team also finished strong at the NDA national competition.
The team came in 16th out of 38 teams in the Medium Varsity Jazz competition, 17th out of 31 teams in Medium Varsity Game Day and 19th out of 36 teams in Medium Varsity Pom.
Winkler said the pom category is the most difficult competition as nearly every team competes for that title.
“Generally speaking, we are all pom teams and everyone does pom and something else,” she said. “You are competing against teams that are unbelievable.”
Varsity
The Warriorettes were in a tight race entering the kick competition finals, which had 14 teams competing for the crown.
Fox finished first in the preliminary round with a score of 94.7667, just ahead of the 94.1333 scored by Rancocas Valley High School of New Jersey.
In the finals, the Warriorettes posted a score of 96.0667. Rancocas Valley finished with a 94.6.
“(The preliminary round score) was higher than we ever scored before,” Winkler said. “It took my breath away when I opened our score. I told them they have to give the best they have ever done in the finals. They did just that to hit the 96. I can’t even put into words how incredible that is.”
Winkler said a kick performance is two minutes long, and dancers perform a Rockettes-style routine. Judges award points on things like how straight the dancers’ legs are, how dancers point their toes and how they carry themselves throughout the routine.
She said Fox’s routine this year was unique, and she believes the squad’s powerful moves and entertaining performance pushed it to the title.
“The kick category and routine takes a great amount of strength,” Winkler said. “When people watch it, it does not appear to be as difficult as it is, but it is pretty intense. All of those teams we compete against from New York and Texas, they are tried-and-true kick teams. To be able to hang with them and come out with back-to-back championships against those teams is pretty incredible.”
While Fox did not repeat its win in the Game Day category, the team rallied to take second out of 17 teams.
The Warriorettes scored an 83 and were in fourth place after the preliminary round. In the finals, they got a 90.5 to finish behind Basic Academy of Henderson, Nev., which scored a 91.3167.
“We opened the division Saturday morning,” Winkler said. “The downfall to opening a division is you have nothing else to be compared to, and those scores tend to be lower. It motivated my kids when they saw the 83. They said they are not an 83 team. We jumped from fourth to second. That is huge, and I am very happy with that.”
In Medium Varsity Pom, the Warriorettes scored a 92.9 in the preliminary round to enter the finals in sixth place. They got a 93.2 in the finals, which Lake Central High School in St. John, Ind., won with a score of 96.3333.
“We set a goal of being in the top 10 with a score of 92,” Winkler said. “They achieved that goal in prelims at 92.9. We were ecstatic at that placement, and then in the finals, we ended with a 93.2.”
Junior varsity
The junior varsity Warriorettes competed against three other teams to win the Team Performance title. The squad scored an 83 in the preliminary round and an 86.2222 to win the title.
In the Game Day category, Fox took second out of 11 teams with an 87.2667. Johnson High School of San Antonio, Texas, won the title with a 90.3333.
“I am very lucky that I have a team that works really hard together, JV and varsity,” Winkler said. “I have an incredible JV coach who holds them accountable. We treat our JV like an additional varsity. They all work so hard for the end goal.”