WORCESTER—Several dozen gathered with flowers, signs, and balloons at Worcester Regional Airport Monday to welcome the Burncoat Spirit Program home from its successful trip to the National High School Dance Team Championship.
The team placed third in the Game Day Live division in its first year competing in the category, which was just added to the competition last year. The competition took place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Walt Disney World.
Family members, friends, and community members cheered as the spirit program made their way from the plane to baggage claim wearing their bronze medals. Head Coach Kelli Shea carried the trophy.
“It was incredible,” Shea said of the competition. “The kids were amazing.”
The team competed twice in the Game Day Live Division, making it to finals, despite a few hiccups along the way.
“It’s a lot of moving pieces to get this size of a group down there with instruments,” Shea said.
The team traveled to Orlando from Logan Airport, and despite getting to the airport hours before their flight, it took the team three hours to get to security and some of the team members had to run to the gate “Home Alone-style,” according to Shea.
The team also had to adjust their routine and learn new moves after learning that some of their planned moves weren’t allowed in the competition.
It was all worth it for Shea, because she got to see them perform on the ESPN stage in front of a mock Disney castle.
“That was the end goal and that was incredible for them to run out in front of that castle,” Shea said.
Being welcomed home to Worcester by a crowd cheering them on was “so special,” added Shea.
The team also competed in the varsity jazz, varsity hip hop, and junior varsity pom, earning between 10th and 12th place in the three categories.
It was an emotional experience for Dance Team Captain Tess Lambert, a senior at Burncoat High School. Lambert competed at Nationals last year but said the experience was different with the Pep Band attending this year along with the dance team.
“It was so surreal because we didn’t ever expect it to work this well when we started but being able to say that we placed third is such an amazing feeling after all of this,” Lambert said.
The memory of placing third in the nation will stay with her for a lifetime, according to Lambert.
Coming together as a dance team and pep band to form the spirit program involved learning new teaching styles and working with new people that they never worked with before, according to Lambert, but doing so helped her grow as a student, dancer, and person.
Before going on stage, Lambert said she was nervous, but as soon as the group stepped on stage, “something just clicked and we all gave 100 percent, it was fun, there wasn’t any stress when we were dancing. We just did it for the performance.”
Stepping off the airplane in Worcester and being greeted by cheers was exciting, said Lambert.
“It’s hard not knowing if people are watching and supporting you,” Lambert continued, “but that kind of just showed me that people love Burncoat Dance and the Spirit Program and they want to see us succeed and they’re proud of all the work that we’ve put in.”
Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Rachel Monárrez joined the crowd at the airport to celebrate the program, along with School Committee Member Molly McCullough, District 1 City Councilor Jenny Pacillo and others.
“I’m so proud of them,” Monárrez said. “I danced when I was younger so I know the amount of commitment it takes and to get national recognition is just phenomenal.”
She wanted to come out and show her support for the program, she said. because dance programs can sometimes get overlooked for their talents compared to other athletic programs.
“It’s not one or the other; our children can thrive in everything, so it’s important for them to know that,” Monárrez said.
Shea estimates the trip cost around $130,000 and the group has fundraised through 50/50 raffles, concessions at games, sponsorships from parents and local businesses, and a GoFundMe page. While the program has raised a large chunk of the costs, the group is still fundraising.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford, and Antigua and Barbuda. Her work has been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
