After a very long and fulfilling winter sports season, the Bomber dance team (BDT) concluded their successful season on February 17. While the BDT is known to have some hard workouts and intense practices, many dancers strongly argue that the events held in February make all the hard work put in throughout the season worth it. Leadership team members Kendra Reed, Morgen Brandel, and Emily Breland walk through the challenges and highlights that keep them coming back for more each season.
According to these Bomber Dance Team leadership team members, one of the most important aspects of the dance season and team is motivation. Many things go into motivating a team through the entire season to keep getting better explains Kendra Reed, a junior on the BDT. She and Emily Breland, also a junior on the BDT, agreed that team bonding activities are some of the most motivating things the BDT does before sections and state week. Reed also adds that the thought of state and the experience motivates most dancers to make it through the season. When asked what the theme for this season was, Morgen Brandel responded, “Our theme this year was “fearless.” We incorporated it into many different aspects of the season, especially closer to sections and state to help girls not hold back while on the floor.” This theme encouraged and motivated these athletes to keep going and give 110% all the time throughout the season while pushing them to a successful postseason, which they achieved. All three of these dancers agreed that another big part of being successful this season was the team bonding and leadership that they had throughout the season.
Team bonding activities were described to be very important throughout this season “to keep the mood in the gym light and fun,” explained Breland. Some of the best team bonding the BDT did this season were going to Great Wolf Lodge to swim and have pizza, going to a performance that the University of Minnesota hosts every year called The Best of the Best, and playing a variety of games during their practices expressed by Reed, Breland, and Brandel. While team bonding is very important to the BDT, another great aspect that makes the Bomber Dance Team so successful is the leadership that they provide themselves “to motivate and encourage everyone throughout the season” Reed highlighted. This year’s leadership team for the BDT consisted of 8 dancers, 7 juniors and 1 senior. The juniors on the BDTs leadership team were Kendra Reed, Emily Breland, Amera Wells, Katie Maziarka, Gabby Krinke, Savannah Roller, and Emma Neumann. Along with them was one of the two seniors Morgan Brandel. The second of the two seniors was manager Emma Levesque. Throughout the BDTs season, this leadership team took a big role in leading such a large team to a section conference and section championship, which Reed, Breland, and Brandel described as the highlight of their seasons, and participating at state. Emily Breland explained how the leadership team encouraged and pushed the BDT through the season by explaining, “We yell out encouraging words during workouts and full outs. We set goals at the beginning of the season and constantly remind our teammates of the hard work and focus it will take to achieve said goals.” With the help of the leadership of these 8 athletes and four coaches Jamie Swenning, Katilynn Borchardt, Carly Otterness, and Jada Krinke the BDT happily ended their season at the State tournament.
After taking first place in the high kick category and third place in the jazz category on February 10th at the section championship, the Bomber Dance Team punched their ticket to state in both categories and continued the Bomber Dance Team legacy of going to state for 22 consecutive years. Breland and Brandel both expressed the excitement the BDT felt that day at sections after winning the high kick category. “After not advancing to state in kick last season we came back hungry for a section win and went from fourth to first at sections in one season. Winning sections made us feel like the work we put in the whole season paid off,” remembers Breland. Brandel added, “Everyone was just so excited and it just showed how much hard work we put into this season.” According to these athletes, every dancer on the team felt that all the hard work they had put in all season finally paid off in the end when they had two medals around their necks. Fast forwarding a week to February 16th, they competed at the jazz state tournament and advanced to finals placing 6th. On February 17th they completed their kick dance and proudly placed 7th. Many dancers describe this year’s state tournament as a great experience and an amazing way to end the 2023-2024 season.
The Bomber Dance Team is known historically to be a very successful program and the athletes and coaches on this year’s team continued to prove that. Reed, Brandel, and Breland all expressed how proud they were as leaders of the team and how far this team had come this season. After a long hard season for all of these athletes, many of them say that this season alone gave them the confidence and motivation to come back next year and be just as successful as the last 22 years.
