MURFREESBORO,
Tenn. — The MTSU Dance Team is headed to Florida this weekend to compete in
the National College Cheerleading and Dance Team Championship for the first
time in more than a decade.
Hosted
by the Universal Cheerleading Association and Universal Dance Association, the
competition runs Friday-Sunday, Jan. 13-15, at ESPN's Wide World of Sports
Complex on the Walt Disney World property in Orlando, Fla.
First-year
coach Rae Boutte, an MTSU alumna and former member of the team, said the
18-member squad will be competing in the Division IA Pom against programs such
as Ohio State and the University of Alabama.
MTSU
competes Saturday in the semifinal competition, with top teams moving on to
Sunday’s finals in the premier college national championship in dance and
cheerleading. The networks of ESPN will air the finalists’ performances at the
competition later in the year.
“The
team has worked countless hours over the holiday break to prepare for the
event,” Boutte said. “We are all so excited to start building a nationally
recognized program here at MTSU.”
The
dance team is part of the MTSU Band of Blue and performs with the band during
halftime of Blue Raider football games while also doing pre-game and in-game
routines. The team also performs during halftime of some home basketball games,
the latest coming Thursday night when the group performed its national’s
routine at the men's game at Murphy Center before jumping on a bus for Florida.
“It is a
phenomenal group of students, and they have represented MTSU at the highest
level this year,” said music professor Craig Cornish, director of the Band of
Blue. “We are very proud of our dance team and our new coach.”
Boutte,
who relocated from Georgia with her husband, Scott, and their two young sons a
year ago, said the team attended UDA summer camps last year and submitted
footage showing their routines and spirit-raising techniques in order to
qualify for the competition.
“We are
so excited to be representing MTSU, and we hope to bring more attention to the
university and our program,” Boutte said. “It’s such an honor to get to come
home and do this.”
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