The team walked into Westwood High School, nerves and excitement entering their body as they looked at all the competition that was in the room. Their team name was announced, and they stepped out onto the gymnasium floor, ready to begin their routine.

“I feel very excited that we’re starting competition season,” sophomore Ashely Tedeschi said. “It’s definitely very nerve wracking, but we are finally here. I’m just excited to go to more competitions and compete.”

The Legacies have been learning their dance numbers since the beginning of the year and have two hour practices every morning to work on their competition routines.

“We definitely learnt them before winter break but then coming back from winter break,” senior and Colonel Sloan Lindemann said. “That’s when competition season hits and [we] really focus in on all the dances.” 

The Legacies have competitions every Saturday, and Tedeschi says that competition days can be packed and a little overwhelming with everything that goes into  that particular competition. 

“You’re supporting everyone on the team, you’re making sure that we have all our forms and costumes all set and everything,” Tedeschi said. “And just making sure that you’re ready and have your hair done and makeup, so it’s very overwhelming at first, but once get used to it, it’s pretty good.”

So far the Legacies have competed at two competitions. The first was at Westwood High School, where they competed with their jazz, pom and lyrical routines, and their jazz and hip-hop companies. They ended up getting second place for the group and the officers won third for their competition piece. 

“We were one and a half points from first so it was so close; it was crazy,” Lindemann said. “We weren’t knowing what to expect so we were proud of ourselves. We want to do better at the next competition, so it wasn’t like it was going to be perfect the first time; we wanted it to just encourage us to do better next time.”

Tedeschi said that she was so excited and happy for the officers when it was announced that they got third place. 

“They work so hard, they have so many extra practices, and they honestly deserve third place and I think they did great,” Tedeschi said. “We also ended up beating Westlake High School by a whole ten points and that was like [the] first time in Legacy history, so that was such a great feeling.”

Last weekend, the Legacies traveled all the way to Johnson Hays High School for their second competition where they won first in their category for pom and kick, and second in the lyrical dance;. Lindermann also mentioned that it was the second time they went up against Westlake, and the second time they beat them.

“It was actually really confusing because at the competition they kinda had a little switch up on the way they were announcing it,” Lindemann said. “So they announced us as being tied with Westlake for Reserved Grand Champion, but we were like, ‘Wait, how did that happen?’ We were honestly really confused at the time but then we heard after the competition that we did beat Westlake; the scores were just kind of close, so it was kinda confusing honestly.”

When it comes to dances, Tedeschi said that her favorite to compete in was kick. In the first competition they competed at, they ended up getting a judge’s award for their kick routine. 

“It was one of the top scoring ones,” Tedeschi said. “And I feel like I got really excited about that and I just enjoy kick a lot.”

The next competition is the Crowd Pleasers Dance Contest at Liberty Hill High School on Saturday, March 5 and it’s going to be their final competition of the season. Thus, it will be the seniors final competition as part of the Legacies Dance Team. 

“It’s honestly really sad to think about, and I try not to think about it because I don’t want to get too sad,” Lindemann said, “I mean it’s exciting, like a good run from sophomore year to now with competition, and it’s just super fun with Legacies. I really hope we do well and win, but it’s not all about that.”

One of the goals Tedeschi wants to achieve this competition season is to continue to improve and to get better in every dance that she does. 

“I want to grow as a dancer with my technique as well as my ability to comprehend choreography,” Tedeschi said. “I would like to obviously do well at competition as well.”

This will be Lindemann’s final competition, but she has more goals than just winning. She would like to see everyone grow closer as a team as well.

“Obviously we want to do well and place and win, but that’s a lot of our goals,” Lindemann said. “But also I just want us to grow closer as a team, and I think regardless of our placement, it’s going to bring us closer together no matter what.”