Glenn Connelly / Photo Editor

If the San Diego State dance team wasn’t familiar with Murphy’s Law that “whatever can go wrong, will go wrong,” the team sure is now.

But even with the head coach abandoning the team a month before the biggest competition of the year and a team member quitting soon after, not even Murphy’s Law could stop the dance team from placing fifth at the 2010 USA Collegiate Nationals on Feb. 14 and 15 in Anaheim for the second season in a row.

SDSU was one of 17 teams in the USA Collegiate Nationals competition, which consisted of a preliminary round (worth 40 percent of the overall score) and a final round (worth 60 percent), which were overseen by seven esteemed judges.

Although the top three spots were won by CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach and Idaho State, respectively, the Aztecs felt their performance was deserving of a top three finish.
“This year we should have placed in the top three,” junior Sara Mason said. “I think we were more deserving this year than we ever have been in the past since I’ve been on the team.”

What makes their fifth-place finish even more special is that they did it without the help of their head coach, who left the team at the end of December, 10 days before they started training for Nationals.

According to junior co-captain Stacy Johnson, the coach told them the news through an e-mail and didn’t even give a reason for departure.

“(Our coach) left without talking to us or the athletics department,” Johnson said. “She wouldn’t even answer their calls; she literally just quit and that was it.”

Slightly panicked, the dance team had to fly in an outside choreographer, who taught them the Nationals routine in one day for nine hours straight.

To make matters worse, a team member quit on the second day of practicing for Nationals, almost ruining the entire routine.

“It was tough,” Johnson said. “We have more than 20 formations and some girls had to learn completely new choreography with only a couple weeks left to train for Nationals.”
Even with these unexpected mishaps, the team managed to stay positive and continue training.

“This season has been a ride,” junior Shari Gordon said. “Yeah, we did lose a coach and a team member, but everyone stepped up and came together, which wouldn’t have happened before. In a way, it was a blessing in disguise.”

For Johnson, this year’s Nationals competition was just one of the many life-changing experiences she’s had since joining the team.

“Me and the 12 other girls on the team are like sisters because we all share the same passion for dancing,” Johnson said. “How many people can say that they’ve danced in front of 65,000 people or performed at Chargers games? Even Viejas Arena is a huge venue to perform in.”

Besides competing at Nationals, the dance team performs at many events, from SDSU football and basketball games, to San Diego Chargers games, to women’s triathlons and breast cancer walks.

The dance team is having tryouts at noon on Saturday, April 17 at the Aztec Recreational Center and is urging anyone with talent and a passion for dancing to try out.