The Manhattan High cheer and dance teams competed in the Spirit Showcase in Topeka Nov. 17 and 18. The competition, coordinated by the Kansas State High School Activities Association, was at the Stormont Vail Events Center and featured more than 60 dance and cheer teams across the state of Kansas.

To prepare for the competition, the dance team rehearsed during first hour every morning. Practicing outside was key to make sure their performance was clean and smooth.

“We practiced every morning during first hour and I know the girls and myself would… practice outside to make sure [our performance] was really clean and ready for State,” senior dancer Jaira Faustman said.

The cheer team prepared for the competition and practiced right after school for around two hours. 

“I just kept on practicing, warming up, [and asked] people for help if I needed to get better,” sophomore cheerleader Kiyah Morgan said.

Performing on stage is nerve wracking, even if you’ve done it multiple times.

“At first it’s… a lot of being nervous and everything like that and then you kind of … get the jitters out once you’re on stage,” junior dancer Sanyia Blount said. “And it’s kind of like reevaluating your… performance and everything like that but then you’re kind of over it and you’re happy with your performance.”

Freshman cheerleader Hannah Uher could say the same thing. 

“You’re in a mindset of… this is what comes next, this is what you do and like counting to the beats of the music,” Uher said.

Communication plays a role in how everything goes.

“A lot of the challenges I had to overcome was kind of working with the team sometimes like when you’re working with new people sometimes it can be hard to… get to know them and they’re really like closed off,” Blount said, “as well as just like cleaning and trying to like push yourself a lot… I got over that [by] just doing team bonding [and] talking to everyone and trying to talk to my coach and everything like that it kind of helps.” 

When not performing, the team enjoyed eating sweets and spending time together.

“Some of the highlights are actually the time that we’re not performing, being able to be together having fun, being silly, eating a lot of candy,” dance coach Kayela Holle said. “The girls ate a lot of candy this year so there was a lot of energy and just a lot of fun and excitement.” 

The dance team strongly believes that they have heavily improved since their last competition.

“You can definitely tell how hard we worked, and it just shows when we were there, we just pushed hard to make sure we did our best,” Faustman said.

Holle believes her team has improved.

“I feel like [the dance team] did a really fantastic job,” Holle said. “What I’m most excited about for the team is their progression throughout the day. Not only did they step up any corrections or feedback that we got throughout the day, they just kind of continually pushed themselves and improved through the process.” 

Holle wants the team to know that they should always be proud of themselves.

“Look at what you’ve done for your school and how incredible you are for doing it,” she said. “I think … it takes a lot of courage and a lot of push to do something for the first time that nobody’s ever done before, and they did that they will always be the first and they should be really proud of what they did for themselves and for their school.”