“My dance team is like a family. With so many hours of training, you start to grow an emotional connection with the girls around you and you want the best for them,” said Grace Delveaux. 

Delveaux, a senior, is an integral part of the dance team, and the team is a major part of her daily routine as well. 

“Dance is a huge part of my life,” she said. Although Delveaux doesn’t plan on studying dance in college, she does plan on having it in her future for years to come.

The senior is currently looking at going to college in the Twin Cities. Despite liking to dance, she plans on being an OB-GYN nurse.

Delveaux compared dance to a job. You are either at the dance, working, doing homework, or having to make time for other people. You don’t get much time to yourself, for it is a big commitment.

Along with the big commitment, you are also setting aside a nice chunk of cash for the sport. With the costumes, the total cost of being on the dance team is around $5,000.

You are also spending a lot of time preparing for either the football games or competitions. Most of the time when you see the dance team out on the field they all have their make-up done and their hair all tied up, which makes up for a lot of time in preparation. 

The dance team struggles with being recognized as a sport, so they don’t get much funding to help pay for the cost. Most of the time they are having to do fundraisers or just paying for the busing and transportation themselves.

All that doesn’t matter to Grace because, as she said, the team members dance for each other.

When thinking about the audience at the football games or at dance competitions, the dance team doesn’t really think about the crowd. They kind of zone out the crowd and are out on the field for each other.

The team has two to three routines: jazz, pom, kick or hip hop. They usually win a spot in the nationals competition in Florida. 

Grace Schuh contributed to this story.