Community Corner

Herndon High Step Team Wins National Championships

And that's not an easy feat when the majority of the members are brand-new to the squad.

 

The members of the Herndon High School Step Team have a lot of reasons to be happy these days.

Probably the biggest, though, is the fact that they are now officially national champions for 2013.

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The team, under the direction of Coach Gary Bushrod, recently became the 2013 Youth Step USA National Champions after beating out all the competition in Harrisburg, Penn.

Stepping is a percussive dance performance in which the participant's entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, singing, and handclaps. Developed by African American fraternities and sororities beginning in the mid-1900s, it is now practiced worldwide.

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See a video of their championship-winning performance above.

For the national win, Herndon High's 24-member team of ninth- to twelfth-grade grade boys and girls beat out teams from as far away as Tampa, Fla. and Poughkeepsie, N.Y. with a score of 394 out 400. The score reflects their performance in categories such as complexity, creativity, synchronization, transitions, show introduction, show exit, enthusiasm, vocal clarity, precision, and overall performance.

Bushrod told Patch, the win wasn't easy, considering that, out of 24 members, only nine of them were returning members.

"We had a brand-new team, so I had really expected this to be more of a building year," he said.

"I am extremely proud of each and every one of these steppers. They are not only steppers; they are true artists and performers who took pride in their craft, and it paid off," Bushrod continued. "They proved to be resilient and determined to achieve something they had been dreaming about since September." 

Bushrod takes pride in the fact that the Step Team's success is truly homegrown. He told Patch, since Step is not recognized as a sport, it receives no financial support from Fairfax County Public Schools. That means, they have to do a tremendous amount of fundraising to pay all their own expenses.

Bushrod said, those expenses include uniforms; competition registration fees, which are around $100 each on average for the roughly seven competitions they take part in each year; and bus rentals for the competitions that are farther than a one-hour drive from Herndon, which can be anywhere from $600 to $1,500 each.

To Bushrod and Herndon High faculty sponsor Kelly Winningham, the Step Team has long held a special place in their hearts.

Bushrod, a Herndon High graduate, was inspired to become the squad's coach after participating in the team all four of his years as a student at the school.

He said, his freshman year, he literally "walked on" to the team with no audition required because they needed male members so badly.

"I was bad at first, though - but they worked with me and I got better," he recalled. "It made me want to keep working at it. And I stuck with the team, all four years."

Next year will mark the Step Team's official 20th anniversary at Herndon High.

Bushrod said, the members are especially excited that Town of Herndon Mayor Lisa Merkel will be specially recognizing the team's national win at a town event later this month.

"That will be really exciting for the team, especially for the new members," he said.

However, there's one other thing to commemorate, as well - at the championships, after the team was presented with its national championship plaque, and a medal for each member, Bushrod was named the national Coach of the Year.

"It felt great," he said. "They are truly flying 'onward and upward,' and I am just tremendously honored that they allow me to be their pilot."

The Herndon High Step Team is sponsored by school faculty members Kelly Winningham and Judy McDermott under the administration of Principal William Bates. Student leaders include team captain, Sumayya Sulaiman, and co-captains Juli Diaz-Perez and Katie Patrum.

In all, the team participated in seven competitions this year, leading up to the nationals, and won first place in six of them. They also hosted their 15th annual StompFest at Herndon High School, with six participating teams from around the region.

The Herndon High Step Team previously won the national championships in 201. In 2012 it finished second,  missing first place by just one point.

 

   


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