Drill team show, Celina Record

Celina High School’s drill team preps for annual Spring Show Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Apr 13, 2016 Nevermind that Celina High School’s Las Gatitas drill team won its division’s grand champion title at Danceline USA’s state competition earlier this year. The girls on the team know that at its Spring Show, set for Saturday in the school auditorium, it likely will be a dance routine featuring a bunch of boys that will have everyone talking. In its second year, the show is a fundraising event to help the drill team’s 22 members and their families purchase competition uniforms and other necessary equipment. More than two dozen acts will take the stage to perform including teen singers and drama students from the school, as well as members of its cheerleading teams. Las Gatitas members will perform several dance routines and have also choreographed a pair of special dances for the show. One routine will have the girls sharing the spotlight while dancing alongside boys from the school, while the other will feature only the guys. “That’s what people like,” said Kelly Babb, the school’s office manager who also serves as advisor to Las Gatitas. “It’s so much fun to watch the guys out there,” she said, even if they tend not to kick their legs nearly as high or with the same precision as Las Gatitas dancers. “The guys don’t have to be perfect.” That typically is not the case for the girls on the team. Babb said the teens work extremely hard throughout the school year to choreograph and perfect their routines, which they perform at pep rallies, football games and competitions. “I know that for years these girls have put in a ton of work and have really not gotten a whole lot of recognition for what they’ve done,” she said. During football season, Babb said, Las Gatitas members must learn and perform a pair of dance routines each week, as well as paint the spirit-boosting signs used to decorate the fieldhouse at Bobcat Stadium. They also assist the Celina High School cheerleaders with various tasks. “The fall is stressful for drill team because we go through so much,” she said. “We are here to support the football team, but yet these girls still deserve credit because they put in so many hours of work.” Following winter break each year is Las Gatitas’ “fun time,” Babb said, when the girls begin prepping for their own competition season. “That’s when they can go and earn all of the rewards and accolades for all of the hard work they put in,” she said. The Spring Show “is just kind of like the icing on the cake,” Babb said, “to show off what they’ve done for the year.” Follow the Celina Record on Twitter @celinarecord.