The BSM Dance Team has themselves ready for another year of competition and have already set high goals for their season.  They will be led by their four captains–seniors Cici Fortney, Megan Benson, and Morgan Hovanec, and junior Ava Smithmier.  With only these three seniors on the squad this year, the Knightettes will be a fairly young team following in the footsteps of their senior leaders.

Overall, the Knightettes are “pumped up” for the season.  “I am very excited for one last go at it in the competitions, and one more year of practices and [eating at] Panera [with the team],” Hovanec said.  “I’m super excited for this upcoming season––it’s surreal that it’s my sixth and final season,” Fortney said.

Competition has already begun for the Knightettes as they have now competed in two competitions. In their first competition they took home first place honors and in their second competition they placed second.  The Knightettes are definitely feeling confident about their chances of succeeding this season.  “Our kick dance is definitely better than last year.  For our jazz dance we lost some good seniors but we will still be good,” Hovanec said.  “The squad is looking great this year; we definitely have a positive and determined energy about us,” Fortney said.

The Knightettes know that it takes practice to get better, so they have been practicing as hard as possible.  “We practice everyday for at least two and a half hours.  We get Sundays off but we do practice on Saturdays,” Hovanec said.  

There are a few competitions that the Knightettes really have their eyes on this year, particularly one in the regular season as well as the postseason competitions.  “We are really looking forward to the Eastview Invitational and then obviously Sections and State,” Hovanec said.

The Knightettes have set goals for themselves at the beginning of the season that they hope will be accomplished by the end of the season.  “We want to medal for the first time ever in our kick dance and get our state title back in jazz,” Hovanec said.  

In addition to these concrete goals, the team is also focused on the process of what they can do every day to achieve these goals.  “Our team has lofty goals, as we always do. Our goal as a team is to dance for each other and put intention into everything we do throughout the season. We are a very passionate and hard-working group of individuals, and I am confident that that will take us far in our season,” Fortney said.