Sartell-St. Stephen Dance Focused on Qualifying For Another State Meet

The Section 4-2-A dance meet will happen Saturday at Sartell-St. Stephen high school.  Sabres dance coach Kelly Mccarney joined me on WJON to discuss the Sartell-St. Stephen dance legacy.

Moved to AA

Every 2 years the Minnesota State High School League looks at enrollment numbers and aligns schools into classifications based on that.  With that in mind, Sartell-St. Stephen, Sauk Rapids-Rice and St. Cloud Schools have moved to Section 4AA.  Sartell had been participating at the AAA level for the past 4 years.

Section Meet

Sartell will be one of 15 teams in the section competing with the top 3 advancing to the State Tournament.  Mccarney says they had been competing at the Class AA level for the first 19 years of their program.  She says they've been competing against Class AA schools all seasons and "it's been a great season so far".  Mccarney is confident they can reach the goals they've set for the season.

Tradition of Success

Sartell has had a dance program for 24 years and they've gone to the State meet in 23 of them.  Mccarney says the team believes pressure is a privilege and it's important to maintain their standard of excellence.  She believes qualifying for state is the expectation but they always need to work for it.

Adjusting Routine

Mccarney says it is a challenge to adjust their music choice and choreography each year but it also forces them to increase their difficulty.  She says when they moved from AA to AAA 4 years ago, they increased their difficulty to compete with the larger schools.  Mccarney says they are still performing at the same difficulty now that they've moved back to AA.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Kelly Mccarney, click below.