Juniors take over the Xavier Dance Team

Abigail Todd, A&E Writer

After being back-to-back state champions, the bar is set high for the Xavier Dance Team. With a reputation like that to uphold, all eyes are on the girls. If that is not enough, the team is competing without any seniors this year. Kesson Brown is just one of the juniors who has stepped up to the task to lead the other girls into the season.

“It was tough to go from just an underclassman to a captain of the team. I was definitely nervous for that change, but it was exciting to become a leader of the team alongside the rest of the juniors,” Brown said.

The juniors are not the only ones excited to accept the role as captains, their other teammates, such as sophomore Maggie Baldus, feel as though the juniors are just as great as any senior.

“It doesn’t feel like we don’t have seniors because the juniors are doing really well acting like seniors; they support us and are awesome role models,” Baldus said.

Dancing is not the only thing that the captains are responsible for. Coach Jess Novotny explains that the girls have a lot more to handle than what most people might think.

“We have four juniors and each of them are captains of a specific aspect of our team: choreography, communication, social media and warmup,” Coach Novotny said. “Each is very important and each girl has a specific lane they are responsible for.” Coach Novotny claims that their goal this year is to bring home the state championship trophy and move on to the final round of nationals. The girls are excited and ready to work towards this goal under the leadership of the junior captains.

Photo Submitted
Junior captains Kesson Brown, Monica Bean, Tessa Ahmann, and Michele Barnum pose for a photo.