Shorewood Drill Team Takes First Place at State

The Shorewood Thunderbirds are state champs again.

On Friday, ’s drill team took first place in the Military category at the 2011 WIAA Class 3A Dance/Drill State Championship at the Yakima SunDome. It comes during the school’s first year in 3A. As a 4A team, Shorewood won first-place drill awards in 2003, 2005 and 2008. It won first place in pom in 2008, and in Color Guard in 2003.

In Yakima, Shorewood also earned an Exceptional rating in the Kick category and an Excellent rating for the Show category. In addition, Pauline Douglass was awarded third place in the combined 1A/2A/3A drill-down portion of the competition.

Coach Kathy Ross said that winning 3A was especially fulfilling this year because Shorewood's biggest 4A competition also moved down to 3A this year. All of those schools, Decatur of Federal Way, Lake Washington of Kirkland and Capital of Olympia, placed on Friday.

Friday’s first-place award was nothing new for this year’s squad, as it was one of six first-place wins. The drill team took home first-place awards at Lake Washington, Decatur and Interlake high schools and at district championships earlier this month at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo. The kick squad won first place in January at Hazen High School.

“Even though we have had a very successful season, you never know what state day will bring,” Ross said. “The other teams were having equally successful seasons, and it was going to be anyone’s game. It was important for us to instill in the girls, especially our first-year members, that we still had lots of work to do to get the scores where they needed to be for state. We preach to them that there is a fine line between confident and cocky. Confidence is great, but cocky will knock you out of the game. The team really listened and continued to work so hard to reach their goal.”

For Ross, the real fun on Friday was after the team competitions were over. “The best part of the day is waiting to find out the results,” she said. “They announce each team who placed, but if you are the first-place team you find out by the announcer playing the first few bars of your music. There is nothing like hearing the music and realizing it’s yours.”

Ross praised the work of co-coach and choreographer Tiffany Bliss. “She put together an amazing military routine. All five judges gave us superior ratings in all three categories: overall affect, execution and content. We are so proud of our 34 girls. These ladies have a work ethic like none other.”

The girls began practicing as a team the start of last summer for five mornings a week. Once school started, they practiced two nights a week. That increased to three to four nights as they entered the competition season and drew closer to state. In January, Ross added four-hour Saturday practices if the team wasn't competing that day.

“These girls are high achievers,” Ross said, “with many of them taking AP and honors classes. They have a combined grade-point average of 3.65. Drill team teaches them time management and how to balance their lives. They learn about teamwork, perseverance, commitment and dedication. This weekend they learned that hard work really does pay off. Both Coach Tiffany and I feel so honored to be a big part of these girls’ lives.”

Here are the names of the students who competed for Shorewood’s drill and kick teams: Julie Ahn, Kathryn Altena, Alexandra Ashelman, Sydney Avolio, Bonnie Beam, Angelica Cupat, Christine Day, Kayla Duskin, Kathleen Gibbs, Mackenzie Gholson, Nicole Jahng, Sadie Kent, Sarah Kim, Lena Kirkman and Clara Lam.

Also: Christa Lee, Leah Lee, Winny Lee, Alexandra Loistl, Stephanie Kang, Haley Maas, Lauren Macalalad, Lindsey Macalalad, Kaia McChesney, Vanessa Maisonpierre, Rachel Miller, Jordan Mullen, Ronnie Park, Kyla Riley, Ellesse Svasand, Alice Wang, Michelle Wilson, Melissa Wonser and Rebecca Yuen.

also competed in the state championships on Friday, finishing second in hip-hop. It was close, as the Highlanders tallied 480 points and winner Sunnyside High School finished with 484.

Shorecrest is coached by Rex Kinney and advisor Robin Martin. Team members are Rochelle Sandoval, Maria Hernandez, Grace Oh, Melissa Tran, James Kim, Zahra Masaoka, Anne Elliott, Grace Masaoka, Zachary Ong, Jason Umbao, Amy Cha, Claudine De Leon, Sharnelle Cruz, Andrew Cruz, Clinton Umbao, Peter Joo, Erika Teng, Khan Malik and Ronel Nanhthaseng.

Full results are available on the WIAA website.