Pretty Eagles well into 24-25 season
By Nene P.
The leaves are changing colors and it's finally fall! Speaking of fall, Airport High School has many sports, but in the fall those include cross country, tennis, volleyball, swimming and football. During sports like football, Airport Cheerleaders and the Airport Dance Team participate during the games and perform for them and make them feel team spirit by cheering them on. Not only do the dancers and the cheerleaders perform, the band also does, and AHS dancers dance to the band’s music and do things like “calls,” which is when the captain, Autumn R., or the co-captain, Lyric L., calls moves and the dancers go row by row and catch on. Overall, the dance team is an underrated but important contributor to AHS Athletics, and this year has been better than ever.
Airport High School's dance team is called the Pretty Eagles and has over ten dancers that participate in things like their schools pep rally, football games, basketball games, and more, including events in other seasons, not just in the fall. This is an important fact because many people mistakenly assume the Pretty Eagles only dance during football games.
Another interesting aspect of this news is the current fundraiser that is going on. The Pretty Eagles have T -shirts on sale that start October 1-31 that say straight out of Airport and can come in blue glitter or solid blue on a black T-shirt that is made with dri-fit material and cost $20. When you purchase a shirt it helps with the dance team. The shirts are being sold on GoFan.co. The backstory for the shirts is also a cool story. At one of Airport’s football games, The Pretty Eagles were wearing their straight Outta Airport shirts in a line walking down to the field getting ready for the entry before the beginning of the game. They were stopped by one of the staff members for Airport, complimenting and asking for a size large in the T-shirt, and this was before they were out when the dancers were promoting and giving everyone a sneak peak of their new upcoming merchandise. In other words, clearly this shirt is fire and staff members want them.
The Pretty Eagles dance team is supervised by Coach Ashley and Coach Barrett. Not only is Coach Barrett a coach for the Airport High School dance team, she is also a teacher, whose full name is Elizabeth Barrett. She teaches Business Ed, FOC, Entrepreneurship, and Personal Finance. Along with her and Coach Ashley, we also have one of our old dancers, Jamerica, that comes in and helps with choreography at practices and games . Practice times for the team are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
So far, the Pretty Eagles have performed in one pep rally during HOCO week and three home football games that were all at Airport High School’s stadium. Anytime the football team has games they will usually have them on Fridays and start at 7:00 pm the latest. On game days, at 3:30 the Pretty Eagles dance team stays after school and goes to their coaches room to meet up and get ready, to eat, practice, etc. and prepare for the games.
At the Pretty Eagles first pep rally game the performed their first dance called city of dreams by chris brown.The music for the dance was played on the speakers in the gym and the sound did mess up wish pausing and skipping in the audio but that didn't stop the dancers from performing beautifully and doing their part. At the end of the dance they got tremendous applause and compliments from the students and staff including their Coach Barett .
When the pep rally was over and the dancers were exiting to leave and get ready to change one of the dancers Jahnee P. had run into one of her friends named Palace who was saying how good she did and that she was watching her the whole time and a little background information about Nene and Palace is that they used to cheer with each other at Pine Ridge Middle School and would even dance with each other at their basketball halftime games.
Not so long after the pep rally had happened in Jahnee P.’s journalism class in fourth period she was receiving some compliments by one of her classmates who is also on the girls basketball team named Kendall W. She was saying how she can dance and she did good.
Zy’Arriona C. said, "I feel like the Pretty Eagles are very good dancers and are very talented girls who can really dance and represent our school."
Gage F said, "From what I saw from the Airports dance team I think they really help to represent the school and from what I had seen from the dancers at the HOCO pep rally it proves that."
Ijazanae J. had this to say: "So far I have been to two most of the games and 1 pep rally. I really enjoy watching the dancers perform and I love to also see my friends that are on the team with their cute hairstyles and outfits."
Another thing that happened when they were leaving was the cheerleaders complementing the dancers and the staff members as well as some of the dancers' friends were recording and cheering them on while and after they got done dancing.
When it comes to dance teams there's a lot that comes with it not just “dancing” you really have to give it your all and really be dedicated to what you do and how you do it and it's not always easy especially when your young and still trying to find out what works best for you and what your good at. With dancing it can really open your mind and get you out of your comfort zone and out of your shell which can be scary at times but in the end it's all worth it .
In conclusion, The Pretty Eagles dance team is overall a great team and would be glad to see some more Airport members there games. Speaking of games, the next game is on Friday the 18th. Don't forget to purchase tickets for the game and maybe help out and purchase a shirt as well!!