At the end of the 2022-23 school year, North’s dance team became a part of a new division. Previously, they competed as a part of the 3A division, but they are now a part of the 2A division.
Divisions are based on the school’s size, and North was 19 people short of staying in the 3A division this year. Other schools in the 3A division include Lake Park, St. Charles East and Glenbard North, but now that the team is in the 2A division, they will be competing against schools such as Geneva, Lake Zurich and Lincoln Way East.
“It happens with the [Illinois High School Association] recounting or regrouping of every school. So we got recertified and regrouped. None of our other sports changed, but we were told on the IHSA website that St. Charles North dance moved to a division rather than three,” said Francesca Damigella, Varsity Dance Team head coach.
Because the team is going to be competing against schools that they aren’t as used to, they are going to have to work harder on learning their new competitors to be best prepared to compete.
“I think that the biggest difference will be figuring out our competition, analyzing that, watching videos of other teams. It’s the same ‘how can we do better?'” said senior Claire Escaro, Varsity Dance Team captain.
In previous years, the team was able to do the walkthrough of their routine at North the day of their competitions. They now have to be prepared the day before, as their 2A competition slots take place much earlier than 3A competitions.
“We used to start at St. Charles North High School, we would do a walkthrough, we would do things like that, because we had so much time we usually weren’t performing until after lunchtime, after one o’clock. Now we’re going to be performing anywhere between 12 [a.m.] to noon. So it’s going to be now that we have to either come in the night before or the day before and really make sure we do our walkthroughs before getting on the bus,” said Damigella.
Although the team’s competitions have changed, their practice routine will stay the same for the upcoming season.
“We practice three days a week. We haven’t started yet because we haven’t had tryouts, but tryouts will be the week of October 23. Then we’ll have practice Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, from 4:30 to 6:30. And then the week of a competition we usually have a walkthrough on a Friday or Saturday,” said Damigella.
While the dance team will rehearse during the school year, they also rehearsed together over the summer to better prepare for this change.
“This group of girls really wants to win and I think they are putting in all of the work that they can. They came in over the summer, they learned the choreography and they’ve been working on it consistently. So I think they will do better just because that’s what they want rather than it being a different division,” said Damigella.
According to Escaro, the team wants to keep other schools in all of the divisions intimidated by them due to them placing 14th at State last season. They understand that they will be challenged, but they are more than prepared to give their all to place as high as they can at competitions.
“The biggest change or struggle I think we’ll have to overcome is probably keeping up with our work ethic during practices because of school and everything; It’s hard during [the] season… I feel like just keeping that reputation that we have going into 2A because people are already intimidated by our team right now,” said Escaro.
The team is excited to put in all the effort they can to win, as well as going through this new experience together.
“I think that we’re excited and just hoping to reach… new goals for ourselves, like placing top three at almost all of the competitions, getting up on the podium for State. Just being in this new division and having our coach for our second year,” said Escaro.
