Screams echo in a green Silverado truck as juniors Emma Beaudine and Molly Aldridge find out they made drill team officers.

“As a Varsity Junior Lieutenant, I’m an overall friend for all the girls to have,” Beaudine said. “As a leader, I want them to know I am there for them no matter what.”

Beaudine knew she wanted to become an officer since she first joined drill team and started preparing herself for the tryout process months before they auditioned in mid-April. Each girl trying out to be an officer had to be interviewed, choreograph and teach a dance, learn a dance and then perform that dance for a panel of three judges.

“It was the most stressful process I think I have ever gone through in my life,” Beaudine said. “It was also a very humbling experience, especially since you have to be interviewed. Being an officer isn’t just about your dancing skills, but your leadership, teaching skills, character, the way you talk to others and the way you act in your other classes.”

Assistant Varsity Drill Team Director Alyssa Estrada thinks Beaudine will thrive in this role because of her hard work and dedication to the team. She believes Beaudine’s confidence and will to help others appropriately built her up for the leadership skills needed for this officer role.

“She is very accountable for herself and her peers. Whether it is helping with choreography, a task needing to be done in a timely manner, being on top of her schoolwork or helping with the Spurs, she demonstrates how to be respectful and expresses her gratitude towards others in many ways,” Ms. Estrada said. “She truly shows her love for this team and leads with a servant heart.”

Beaudine will share the Varsity Junior Lieutenant position with junior Shayla Elam and Estrada believes the two will work great together because of their shared passion and commitment to dance.

“They are both very driven spurs and want what is best for the success of the team,” Ms. Estrada said. “They will definitely compliment each other very well.”

As an officer, Beaudine dances on the front line of the field during football games and helps direct other Spurs beforehand.

“I should be expected to know everything since I need to be a role model for the other girls,” Beaudine said. “I hope that they see me and want to get better, not intimidated, but I hope to fire their passion for dance even more and to help them believe in themselves.”