In the spirit of pep rallies and school events, reporter Adrian De Guzman went behind the scenes of one hard-working performance group: Seminole High School’s Step Team. De Guzman, having no prior experience with stepping, discovered that the group’s purpose goes beyond pep rallies.

“I think it’s going to go great,” says De Guzman, before jumping in with the team. “The Step Team’s a really big part of the pep rallies. It really gets everyone hyped up in the crowd, and I think it’ll be really cool to learn what they actually do in their practices.”

His assurance was short lived as the day’s practice began, and De Guzman found himself struggling to keep up with the routine. Step harder, show attitude, be precise, were some of the tips that the Step Team shared. The calculated movements picked up in speed along with the beat of the claps; De Guzman was soon lost in a sea of synchronized jumps and steps.

During the first water break, De Guzman describes his experience.

“It’s actually really hard. It’s hard to stay as a team, together, and it’s really hard to keep up with all the other people. And when you make a mistake, it’s sort of like it’s a snowball effect,” says De Guzman. “But it’s really fun to see how they actually do it, how they actually work together, and how synchronized they are.”

The team spends hours after school each Tuesday and Thursday, practicing routines again and again on the pavement before the doors of Tribe Hall. Dedication doesn’t stop there, however, as steppers must also maintain grades, hold fundraisers, and travel throughout the Central Florida area for competitions, performing with props and costumes. The team also spends classroom time after practices to work on learning activities and listen to speakers. The group even went on a college tour. Step Team Coordinator Misty Beasley-Wright describes it as not just a Step Team, but a mentor program.

“I visit some of my students, my past students that [are] away in college. I spent my spring break last year going up to A&M trying to help one of my students get into the school. So it’s just little stuff like that. I like making a difference in the lives of the girls in our community,” says Beasley-Wright.

“I wanted to be [a part of] more of a sisterhood, and be a part of people who care,” describes stepper Tailia Hicks, who was new to the team this year. “We don’t do just pep rallies, we actually travel and do other competitions.”

At the end of the day, a tired reporter reveals his experience.

“It was great. It was really tiring,” describes De Guzman. “It’s amazing how much attention they pay to detail. I don’t have to do this every day after school whenever they practice, so I just pushed through it. But for them it must be a lot more work to push themselves to practice so that they can perform for the pep rallies and for their competitions. They should be recognized for all the practices and all the work they do to represent our school.”