Four sophomores and two freshmen fill out the roster, a lengthy one compared with some other 1A schools.

This 1A dance team is “an unusually big group,” according to their coach. “Most of these girls have training from somewhere.” The Pretzel dancers lost just one senior from a year ago, and they’re back with three seniors and seven juniors. With a sizeable town and two dance studios, there’s bound to be some dance talent among the 1,200 kids who go to Freeport High School. But since the team doesn’t get gym time too often, the Freeport Dance Team will be back here in the morning to claim the basketball court. 5:00 is technically when Christmas break begins. “The girls are going to tune out at 5,” she warns me, after I ask if I should do the senior interviews after practice. A lot of cleaning needs to get done before their next comp, so Coach Hersey will have them back in this cafeteria throughout break. We’re in the school cafeteria, a place made for eating and not dancing, so I overhear Coach Hersey ask once of her girls, “How’s the floor today?” She gets a straightforward answer: “Slick.”Įven at the end of finals week, and just hours away from the freedom of winter break, these girls are hard at work. The 16 girls are dressed mostly alike in practice outfits, led by their three seniors who call out the warmup stretches. With two dance studios and a high-profile high school dance team, Freeport’s the epicenter of dance in northwest Illinois.Īssistant coach and 2015 dance team alum Rachel Carlson lets me in the building. You’ll see plenty of farmland on the way there, but Freeport itself is a city of over 26,000. It turns out that their world is way out there, 30 miles west of Rockford. I wanted to see this team in their world. So this time around, I returned the favor and made the drive to Freeport just a couple days before Christmas (their winter break would start the next day). They often head east to the Chicago suburbs for competitions, and I got to meet Coach Tara Hersey at UDA camp in Wheaton last summer. The Freeport dancers aren’t afraid to hit the road to mingle with the top teams. Google the mascot if you’re ever feeling down. In the gyms throughout the NIC-10 conference, you can’t help but love the sight of the Freeport Pretzels logo alongside those of the other conference teams. The whole pretzels backstory has to do with the community’s early German settlers who were apparently super-into that particular snack. I’m talking about the Freeport Pretzels, maybe one of the state’s most-loved school mascots. It might even be covered in chocolate (but then you’re on the road to a diet catastrophe). But then there’s a mascot that you can dip in cheese, or maybe honey mustard if you need that sweet-salty combo. Bulldogs, eagles, tigers-they’re all meant to be intimidating to opponents.

Easy dance moves for mascots