Exactly seven years ago to the date, the Eaglettes won the Hip-Hop category at the 2022 Jamfest Dance Super Nationals once again, while adding the Pom category to their trophy case as well.
Apollo had placed second in KHSAA Region 2 competition in both categories in the fall and placed third at NDA Western KY Regional in December in both categories, as Head Coach Melissa Jarboe said they were pushing to compete at the national level.
“We were very excited to go to a National competition,” Jarboe said. “The team has been working for four years to get to a National-level competition, but plans have not worked out. This year competing Nationally was one of our main goals. This team has never competed in this type of setting. The nerves were real, but the team handled the pressure and succeeded.”
Knowing that it would take a lot of hard work and determination to compete at a national level, the Eaglettes worked with multiple choreographers and added extra practices and conditioning to prepare themselves.
“We also worked with quality choreographers along with our coaches to help prepare our routines,” Jarboe said. “We went to three competitions before Christmas to get judges’ feedback. Each time we competed, we added something new to the routines. We studied videos of ourselves at practice and from previous competitions to continue to improve our performance.”
Jarboe said that they dance as a team and win as a team at Apollo, so the upperclassmen made sure that everyone was involved in what they would perform throughout the year.
“Our seniors this year really wanted everyone to feel valued and important to the whole process,” Jarboe said. “They started last summer discussing music for the competition dances as a team. Everyone was able to contribute and have a voice. Then when we discussed our vision with our choreographers, the team had input on what they envisioned for different sections of the dance. Each time we competed before Christmas, we would study our performances and make adjustments as needed. Our team is really good at encouraging and supporting one another.”
With each and every member of the Eaglettes involved and plenty of experience under their belt, they arrived at nationals. For the first day of competition, Jarboe and the Eaglettes wanted to take the feedback from the judges and apply it to their performances on day two. This is an approach they’d taken to their performances all season long.
“The first day’s score is 25% of the final score, with the second day being 75%,” Jarboe said. “We always try to perform stronger than we did the last time. Our first day score for Hip Hop was the highest we had scored this season. So, we set a goal to score one point better the next day.”
And the approach worked, helping the Eaglettes secure first place in both the Hip-Hop and Pom categories at nationals for the first time since 2015.
Jarboe and company said that they were thrilled to continue a winning tradition and bring back the Hip-Hop title while grabbing some extra hardware in the process.
