Murray, NEB- The Cougarettes Dance Team works from football season to state perfecting their routines.

At every home football game the dance team performs a halftime routine. They have faced adversity through their first two performances with the conditions, but they were still successful.

“Our first performance, the music cut out, so the whole effect wasn’t necessarily shown,” coach Katherine Bloch expressed. “However, my girls did an incredible job continuing to dance and count their way through.”

The team puts in countless hours of practice every week, starting in the summer. “We practice Mondays for 2.5 hours and then we have short morning practices (45 minutes) twice during the regular school week as well,” Bloch exclaimed. “We work incredibly hard!”

Multiple dances are taught and learned for the season, then the dances are to be cleaned and made performance ready. Bloch stated, ”Cleaning the dance takes 1-2 practices and then fine tuning it and continuing to practice it requires time at every practice until the big performance.”

This year the dance team has two senior captains Jozlyn K. and KK J. They both have roles in leading the team to success. “My captains have done a great job of leading by showing the Cougarette way to do things,” Bloch emphasized. “This includes being positive, working hard inside and outside of practice, and getting to know one another on a personal level.”

Being reigning state champions the Cougarette’s have high expectations for themselves and the season. “We want to continue to bring strong ‘state-like’ performances for EVERY performance, not just state,” Bloch added. “Once football is over, we will really hit hard on state practices.”