The final buzzer ends and the JV girls’ basketball team lines up to shake their opponents hands, they’ve just won their first game. They run excitedly into the locker room to celebrate the win.
It was then that the JV girls’ basketball team started their own tradition. Since then, the girls have been on 12-game winning streak. After every win, they have a dance that they perform to celebrate.
Kendall Battle, Kya Davis, Brooke Jenkins and Lacy Dixon were the athletes that made up the dance. All of the girls that made the dance are freshman so they will be able to keep the tradition going.
“We were playing around at practice one day and just continued to work on it at Brooke’s house that night,” Battle said.
The dance includes the Whip, Nae Nae, Dab, Milly Rock, Sexy Walk, the Quan, Drop, Moonwalk, and Hit Them Folks.
There is no music to the dance instead the players just say the moves they are doing to a certain beat.
“No song really inspired this dance we just made it up ourselves,” Kya Davis said.
The girls didn’t really plan on the entire team learning the dance.
“Once we won the game against Lafayette we became so excited and did it,”Brooke Jenkins said.
Although they taught the team the dance, not everyone participates. If someone was to look into the locker room they would see many of the players participating but players such as Helen Nelson and Katie Basta laugh timidly in the corner.
“All the girls who want to participate in the dance do,” Davis said.
After a win, there is very high energy in the locker room. Everyone is screaming, jumping around, and smiling super big. Once everyone is in the locker room, the real celebration begins. Someone counts down from 3 and they start the dance.
“The atmosphere is very ecstatic,” Isabelle Blackwell-Garcia said. “The chemistry between all of us girls feels as one.” The girls try and dance before Coach Corey Lewis comes in the locker room from looking at stats, but sometimes he comes in and joins them.
“At one point, he dabbed after we had finished dancing, and it was super funny,” Lacy Dixon said.
The team has not lost since they started the dance.
“We don’t really know what we would do after a loss since were on an 12-game winning streak,” Blackwell-Garcia said.
The girls lost their first 3 games of the season but after that first win featuring a dance, they have been unbeatable.
