For many sports teams, their biggest competition may lie within their school district. However, dance team is an exception of this thought. While competing at the Universal Dance Association, the four high schools (Eisenhower High, Henry Ford II High, Stevenson High, and Utica High) showed what it means to be a community, and a member of Utica Community Schools.

“From being a graduate of UCS to now being a member of the coaching staff, I feel extremely grateful and proud of the camaraderie shared among all of the schools within the district,” coach Katie Droope said. “We are constantly building one another up and supporting each other in any way we can.”

When entering finals, three UCS schools advanced to finals and the order went as followed: Stevenson High medium jazz, Utica High small pom, and Eisenhower High medium jazz. As finals is extremely difficult to advance to, and the umber of teams competing in these categories is so large, the teams and coaches were very excited for UCS to compete consecutively at nationals.

“I think it was a cool experience,” senior Julia Meguid said, “we all got to cheer each other on as a district instead of individual schools.”

Many of the dancers from these teams are friends outside of school as they dance at the same dance studios. This also raised excitement for the three schools.

“It was really exciting,” sophomore Isabella Santori said, “when you dance with some girls for a long time its cool to see them dance a different way and without you.”

As nationals is the biggest competition of the year, the three UCS schools were very excited to compete and support each other and hope to continue this camaraderie in years to come.