Rocori Dance Team Has Strong Family Ties

COLD SPRING (WJON News) -- For the Baumann’s of Cold Spring dancing is a family affair.   Joyce Baumann is the Head Coach for the Rocori Dance Team, her daughter Hannah is an assistant coach, and another daughter, Grace, is a member of the team.

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Joyce is in her third year as head coach, and Hannah was actually an assistant coach one year earlier. Hannah says when the head coach spot opened up she knew exactly who to call:

"Some staffing changes happened and we needed a new head coach and I was like hey mom you wanna be a head coach we need one. You're really good at leading. She's like, sure why not and so she came back or not came back she came to coach."

Joyce says she was a little hesitant to say yes when Hannah first asked her to be the coach:

"Full disclosure, I haven't been on a dance team since 1985 so things have changed quite a bit, so I was a little worried about what I would be able to bring to the table skill wise because it's just so radically different then it was when I danced in high school."

Joyce says knowing there were five strong assistant coaches and great support from the school administration ultimately made the decision to coach easy.

Senior Grace Baumann says she really enjoys working with her mom and sister on the team and it is not stressful at all. Grace had actually stepped away from dance to play hockey but when her mom signed on to coach she says the time was right to come back:

"There was a lot of parts about dance that I missed and when both of them started coaching I thought that that could be a really fun thing we could experience together and so I'm really glad I went back to it especially just because now I get to do something that I love with my mom and my sister."

Joyce says she cherishes being able to spend time with her daughters and an added bonus is being able to embarrass them when she does something goofy at practice. However, she says it would be a treat to get her dining room table back to its right location versus shoved to the wall so Hannah and Grace and practice at home.

All three Baumanns say it is a joy to be able to spend this time together doing something they all love. Rocori currently has 46 members on the dance team in grades 8 through 12 and competes at the 2-A level.

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