Saturday morning, Normal Community Step Team members woke up early to drive one and a half hours to their first competition in Tuscola, Illinois. The team was one of two teams to compete in the step category and placed second place right under Waubonsie Valley High School from Aurora, Illinois. The Step Team this year is also the first team from Normal Community to ever compete in step. NCHS also competed in the hip-hop category and placed first in their division and ended with the sportsmanship award.

After rewarding the team the sportsmanship award “Although Normal Community is a small team they made a big impact today,” the judges remarked.

The step club has six girls competing, including Teaona Bassette (12), Zanyia Matthews (10), Taliyah Herron (10), Ra’gan Pierce (10), and Lindsay Gleason (11). All the girls have been working hard on learning and cleaning their step, choreographed by Chelsea Smith (11), and hip-hop, choreographed by former NCHS student Walter Maybell.

This was the first competition many of the girls have been to so they still have a lot of work to do on their performances. Their next competition is February 9^th in Dunlap, Illinois and their last competition is in Clinton, Illinois on the 16^th. The team’s goal is to improve enough to qualify for the State competition.

“The first competition the girls came out with a lot of confidence and had a lot of fun, so for this upcoming competition we will just have to work on our formations and the sharpness of our chorography,” Ms. Beaumont says with confidence. “I’m really proud of this year’s team though.”

Step Club usually practices every Tuesday and Thursday but now during their competition season they have raised the bar practicing everyday after school trying to perfect their performances.

For next year’s team Ms. Beaumont has higher expectations.

“My goal for next year is to be more structured in the beginning of the year to be more prepared for competition,” Beaumont explained.

Ms. Beaumont is expecting a lot of improvement from the Step Team girls in the upcoming competitions and NCHS can’t wait to see the accomplishment they will achieve.