The Manhattan College Cheer Team takes on their first nationals.
EMILY GIANNI / COURTESY
By Mary Haley, asst. Features editor and social media editor
The Manhattan College cheer team and the Jasper Dancers are heading down to Daytona Beach, Florida to compete in the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) and National Dance Alliance (NDA) Collegiate Nationals Competition. This makes the twelfth consecutive year that the Jasper Dancers are competing in Daytona Beach, and the first year ever for the cheer team to be competing at this level.
Both teams did a “Spirit Showcase” on April 7 of their routines in Draddy Gymnasium to not only practice what they’ve been working on throughout the school year to a live audience, but to also give the college community a peek into what will be shown down south. The dance team presented two dances twice: their jazz routine, to an orchestra cover of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by Eurythmics, and their hip-hop routine to “Lean Back” by True Story, featuring Fat Joe and Remy Ma. The cheer team was invited to the showcase for the first time to show their routine to a mix of songs about “making history” to celebrate the fact that it’s the first time Manhattan College Cheer will be going to nationals.
Daniela Beggins, a third-year management student, has competed at cheer nationals before, but it is her first time representing the Jaspers on a national stage.
“I’m very proud to get to nationals with this team,” Beggins said. “There was a lot of hard work and sweat and tears put into [this routine]. It’s a feeling you cannot even describe. I wouldn’t have even thought we were at the point [to go to nationals] in August.”
While both teams rehearse their routines and dances for nationals, they are also busy during the year cheering and dancing on the sidelines of basketball games and other athletics events.
Olivia Anderson, a freshman biology major on the cheer team, explained to The Quadrangle the beginning-to-end process of a routine from when the process of learning it starts and how the practices become more complicated to preparing the performance for a national-level competition.
“[The process] started at the beginning of September,” Anderson said. “We thought we were just doing basketball season and the MAAC, but then Nationals were introduced to us. We had to do camps and training that none of us had prepared for to be able to come to nationals. Then our practices started getting more intense [and changed to] multiple times a week for longer hours. That’s when the routine had started to get built or when we had to change it. We were able to bring it all together for nationals.”
As for the Jasper Dancers, this year’s competition isn’t their first rodeo. Taylor Post and Lizz Henrich, coaches for the Manhattan College dance team over these past three years, are especially confident about their ability to see success at this year’s competition with the techniques they have honed in on this season.
“This year more than ever, we took the time to really break down each routine and take more time than ever to get granular with the counts and the specific feet they’re supposed to be on,” Post said. “We spaced out the floor in panels and focused on what panel they’re supposed to be on and how far from the line, like if it’s a half or third away. To the common eye, you may not realize how granular we’re getting.”
During nationals, dance performances are based on a raw score out of 100 given by judges. Each category is scored out of 10, and then the judges will score teams individually and average the scores. The top 60% of routines will move on to finals based on the competition level and scores of other teams.
“It gets very nerve-wracking,” Henrich said.
Shortly after both teams arrive on Wednesday, dance has a practice session after checking in. On Thursday there are jazz preliminaries followed by potential jazz finals. Friday has jazz finals if they advance, as well as hip-hop preliminaries, with hip-hop finals on Saturday. Finally, after competing and practicing, cheer and dance have a celebration dinner planned for Saturday after the final competition, where team members, coaches, family and friends are welcome to celebrate the nationals weekend and the work the teams have been dedicated to for the past school year.
Post explained what this dinner and the entire weekend means to her and the team as an end to this year’s season.
“This was a difficult year for us,” Post said. “We are just really proud of the team for staying focused and overcoming [the difficulties]. They’ve worked so hard, and I think it’s really going to pay off.” Editor’s Note: This article was written before the NDA competition took place.