The Oshkosh West Index - Hazy definition sends dancers slipping through cracks of district budget

Volume 101, Issue 3

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Hazy definition sends dancers slipping through cracks of district budget

By Erin Mathys
posted 7:34:16 AM CST, Nov 12, 2004

Since its formation, the dance team has always faced controversy due to the fact that they are neither a sport nor a club. Because it lands somewhere in between, the group receives very little funding and misses the opportunity to receive school recognition. Although the dance team’s budget manages to cover new poms and four out of the five competition fees, it neglects all other needs of the squad. For this year alone, each girl has invested over 600 dollars to make the necessary purchases for competition and performances.

“We have to buy our dresses, gloves, hair pieces, tights, t-shirts, sweatshirts and two pairs of shoes,” said junior Azin Moghadam.

Besides their uniforms, the dancers have other financial responsibilities to tackle.

“Our budget does not cover all of our competitions, so once it runs out the girls have to pay for additional fees,” said head coach Coreen Schleifer. “Things like camp, hotels, competition supplies and at times transportation, come out of their pockets.”

Because dance team is not an official sport, its members must support these purchases. Yet, the girls must still pay an athletic fee and attend an athletic code meeting.

“It doesn’t make sense for us to pay the $25.00 fee and go the meeting if we’re still not going to be considered a sport,” said Moghadam.

Although the squad was happy to accompany the state champion girls basketball team to the final games in Madison, they were not as pleased to over extend their wallets to support the three-day trip.

“We pay for our hotels during the basketball team’s state, as well as food and transportation,” said Schleifer.

Most would consider a team’s first trip to state in school history to be quite memorable, and deserving of a reward, yet when last year’s girls achieved this feat, the recognition and support was minimal.

“We had to pay for the bus, and of course it wasn’t a coach,” said sophomore Anna Discher. “We also paid for half the cost of our hotel rooms, and paid fully for our food and drinks.”

It was impressive for the squad to gain entrance into the state tournament, but a sixth place finish in funk and a tenth place finish in jazz made the accomplishment that much more remarkable.

“We never expected to do so well,” said Schleifer. “We were just so excited to go and to see everything that would be going on.”

It is apparent that the 2004 team would greatly appreciate any relief of fees possible, even if it doesn’t come directly from the athletic department.

“We do a ton of different fund-raisers during the school year such as the homecoming car wash, catalog selling, candy bar sales, and finally, we sell ‘I Heart the OWHS Dance Team’ t-shirts at West to raise funds,” said Schleifer.

Summer fund-raisers are used as well.

“We hold a brat fry for a weekend and hold a middle school clinic which gets us money from the t-shirt fees,” said Schleifer.

Senior Ashley Pistohl is exceptionally bothered by the lack of school aid and support.

“We put so much hard work into dance team; in a way it’s like a double sport,” she said. “We have competitions all the time, and on some nights we’ll have practice and then later a game to perform at. Compared to a lot of teams we do overtime.”

Moghadam feels that the school and administration should respect the squad’s excessive time commitment.

“It makes me really mad, and we all feel that way,” she said. “We have the longest season of any sport, and for that entire time we practice Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I’m just upset the money isn’t more spread out.”

Athletic Director Brad Jodarski acknowledges the dance team’s complaints, but at this time feels there isn’t a lot the school or athletic department can do.

“The WIAA is a state organization that governs all high school sports,” he said. “Dance or performance squads, as they’re also called, are not officially recognized at this time. Athletic directors have talked a lot about it, but nothing major has been changed.”

In the past, the dance team received no funding in any form from the athletic department. Now, however, they are given an annual budget to work with.

“The budget works like this, each sport requests items for the following year, and then the athletic department allocates funds to each sport,” said Jodarski. “How much each group gets is hard to say; there’s only so much to go around. Everyone’s needs need to be looked at, as well as how much is actually available.”

According to Moghadam, most individuals get the wrong impression of what dance means to its participants.

“We’re looked down upon and not very many people respect us,” said Moghadam. “Most people think dance is not a sport and that it’s just for fun and exercise.”

Schleifer believes the lack of funding and recognition is due to the fact that the athletic department doesn’t grasp the extensive effort that the girls put into dance team.

“I don’t think anyone realizes how much work they put in, and how physical it is,” she said. “After the Guyz Dance Team performed, a lot of them said they were surprised how much work they actually had to put into the routine.”

By throwing together a few random outfits, the dance squad is able to make an attempt to lessen the financial burdens on their families. Although this is pleasing to checkbooks, uniforms made by the girls don’t fair too well at competitions.

“We’re really good; I think if we got more money we could be even better,” said Moghadam. “It’s really sad when we have to make our own clothes by putting glitter on T-shirts; we just can’t go to competitions with homemade stuff, it makes a terrible impression on the judges.”

By participating in a double sports season, the dance team finds themselves performing for the majority of the school year.

“The commitment to dance team is huge,” said Schleifer. “We have a longer season than any other sport; in May we have tryouts, then we practice all summer and attend camp. We perform and practice during the football season and continue through the basketball season until it concludes in March.”

Besides the unusual length of the season, the girls also have to commit themselves weekly to different dance team activities.

“We practice four days a week, for two hours,” said Schleifer. “We have to perform at every home game for football and both girls and boys basketball. In addition to that, we have five competitions. When you add games, practices and five Saturdays of competition, it gets really busy and takes up a lot of the girls’ time.”

Because the dance team never technically wins or loses competitions, it’s difficult for the squad to hold its appeal for the lengthy season.

“We never have a score board; we have a judge sheet instead,” said Pistohl. “It’s not like basketball where they can say ‘The girls beat Kaukauna by 30.’ Instead, we have to announce placings, which isn’t as interesting to people.”

Before any group work can be done, the girls have to choreograph a routine. Once the basic moves have been decided, they can then begin their normal practice schedule.

“First we stretch, and then warm up,” said freshman Chelsea Hammett. “Then we spend the majority of practice working on technique and critiquing each other. We work on our routines by having a few girls dance at one time, and then the others will tell them how to do better. We just try to make our routines the best they can be.”

Granting more money is not the only way the school could help the squad.

“I think what we really need is more recognition from the school,” said Pistohl. “We do so much as a team and we want people to know about it. Maybe it would be possible for the school to send a fan bus to one of our competitions. We just want people to look at us and know that dance team is not fun and games, but actual hard work.”

The WIAA may not decide to recognize dance teams as actual sports while any of the girls on the ’04 team are still competing. For now they must accept the minimal funding that is provided to them, and enjoy the activity to which they have all committed so much.

“In a way it’s okay to pay so much,” said Hammett. “Dance is something we all really love, and in the end it’s all worth it.”

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