The West Fork dance team was masterful with four team state titles at the 2024 Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Association State Championships in Des Moines in December. The Warhawks earned state titles in Class IV Pom, Class III Hip-Hop, Class II Jazz and Class I The Mix.
Seniors Grace Craighton, Libby Trewin, Gracie Ditsworth and Ellie Lauffer played a big part in helping the Warhawks lock in and rule the floor during each performance.
Head Coach Kaci Harper on the seniors mentorship, service and positivity.
“Grace Craighton has actually danced with the studio since she was three. She’s really good at being able to help the girls with different types of dance moves and different types of skill sets. Libby Trewin has been a great leader throughout the course of her dance career as well with the high school. She’s great at leading, she’s great at helping them with things they need, she’s also very positive with the kids,” says Harper. “Gracie Ditsworth, has been there the whole time. She’s actually competed in some solos at State and done pretty well, that was huge for her. Ellie Lauffer is another senior I’ve had all four years. She was right there by my side, if I needed something, she was there, was very helpful and was able to do it. I think most of the girls turned to her for that positivity. If they were doing something wrong, she was always there to be like, hey, you’re good, you’ve got it.”
There are six multi-sport athletes on the team. Harper on being efficient with practices and training, working with a busy group.
“We want the kids at West Fork to be able to do every activity. We practice for pretty much about five hours on Sunday evenings and Wednesdays we have an early out, so we practice for like a hour and a half. That’s all we practice throughout the season. We don’t start till school starts. We learn all of our choreography in the summer. We do hire in choreographers to come in and choreograph our routines. In the summer months we do some technique in offseason as well. The girls are always pretty much really prepared for where we’re at when it comes to practice. They’re ready to go in August with those routines. They know the choreography, we can start breaking it down and getting it ready for state.”
Harper on a rewarding part of leading this program.
“I just love hanging with the girls and seeing their excitement when they do something well. Over the years I’ve seen girls come in and they can’t even do a double turn or there’s some tricks that we do and they can’t even master that. By the time they’re with us, even for one year, they are doing stuff they’ve never done. They just wanted to be a part of something and they don’t know the skills they have until they try it. That makes me so happy to see that they’re happy and they’re like, oh my gosh, I can do that. It’s the confidence that they have. Dance is building confidence for these kids to go out on the floor and do this in front of other people as well.”
West Fork is projected to return four Individual state medalists next year including, Class II Dance Finals state champion Kylin Johnson, runner-up Adra Johnson, third place finisher Emerli Johnson and sixth place finisher Nahla Wilson.
