The Barstow Knight Stars are ready for their season opener at the next pep assembly.
The 2022-23 Knight Stars
Jayden Sampat 24, Amara Patel 24, Emory Pan 26, Kyanne Carlgren 24, Story Wright 26, Drew Liss 26, Elizabeth Boyce 23
On school days, most students wake up at 8:00 a.m., throw on some clothes, and sleepily drag themselves to school. But not the Barstow Dance Team. Since Tuesday, September 12, every Tuesday and Thursday (and some Fridays) the team arrives to practice at 6:45 in the morning. Follow along as they prepare for their first performance, and remember to cheer them on!
“The best part of our preseason is getting to know all the dancers and seeing them come together,” says Head Coach Krista Logan, former Comets and Chiefs cheerleader. “I love seeing how the team learns from each other.”
While historically the Knight Stars have been small, they have a more extensive roster this year:
Each member brings something different to the team, from over a decade of competitive dance experience to years of gymnastics and training.
While most of the team members are returning veterans, they welcome two new freshmen this year: Nin and Malay. “I joined the team because I wanted to make new friends and learn more about dance and the Barstow Dance team specifically,” explains Malay. “I also want to go to more games this year since I haven’t been able to in the past.”
The Knight Stars are looking forward to many different things this season. Patel highlights her favorite thing as “traveling to St. Louis because we get to bond as a team and do fun activities like go to Dave and Buster’s.”
Before practice officially started, the Knight Stars had a morning full of team bonding and getting to know each other. They met on Friday, September 8, and had a morning full of activities to help the team members get to know each other. “We tried the human knot game,” explained Coach Logan, as well as “a variation of Simon-says and Heads-Up.”
Following that, they officially kicked off practice by learning their very first routine. Patel explains the first routine, saying “The theme of our first routine is Western, to match the theme of Spirit Day.” Patel choreographed the routine, as well as Carlgren, Wright, and Liss. Patel adds, “It’s really fun and overall pretty hype, and we hope everyone at the pep rally enjoys it.”
After the team’s season opener at the pep rally, they will perform at the Boys Basketball home games, as well as definitively competing at two competitions, and one tentative one. The two determined competitions at this time are Fort Zumwalt North Invitational on January 20th in St. Louis and the Missouri Dance Team State Championship in Kansas City at Hy-Vee Arena on February 24th.
