The Sapphires are not a part of the Millikin Athletics Program. But they still go to every football game and basketball game to perform, ever present in athletic events.
The Sapphires Dance Team is a group of five women this year. Although they are small, they still attend every game they can and entertain the crowd.
“We may be small and not as well known as cheer [or] the football team, but we still attend games and we are still there to entertain people,” sophomore Sapphires member Jocelyn Bettarelli said.
They have no coach, yet still thrive as a team on and off the field. But having no coach means co-captains Emily Vuglar and Reed Pierson must act as the authority figures.
“The past two years, it’s just been up to the captains to make all the decisions and all the rules,” senior co-captain Emily Vuglar said. “It can be challenging, because there’s no one keeping us on track.”
It can be hard to maintain a healthy relationship between teammates if two of them are acting as coaches, but Vulgar and Pierson skillfully tow the line between “friend” and “coach.”
Freshman Katie Smith has been on the team since the beginning of the year. Smith has observed the way Vuglar and Pierson lead the team.
“They definitely aren’t as strict as some coaches, but we have our rules,” Smith said. “I would say we are all very respectful of their roles, so we aren’t going to test their limits, and they will be strict with us when need be.”
As well as coaching, members of the team are responsible for choreographing, finding times to practice, and editing their own music for performances. Smith is in charge of editing the music that plays at games and is teaching the other members how to do it as well.
Many other teams need to use the football field to practice, so the only time the Sapphire’s can practice on the field is 6:30 a.m.
The Sapphires practice twice a week, but that doesn’t mean dance stops there. They may practice together so they can all be on the same page, but the dancers take time out of their schedule to practice their dances on their own.
Even though they don’t meet in person often, they have still become close through their time on the team.
“I only see them when we’re practicing or at games, but I feel like we’ve gotten so close over time because we practice and we’re at games so often that we really developed a sense of close friendship, just because we all have the same love for dance,” Bettarelli said.
Their love for dance keeps the members of the Sapphires performing. Even though many people don’t know who they are or don’t agree that dance is a sport, the Sapphires continue to do what they love regardless of what people think.
“We practice in order to entertain during the halftime show, and just because you may not see us actually perform, we’re still there, and we deserve to be a part of the athletics because dancing is hard,” Bettarelli said. “It may not look like it, but we’re taking a lot of time out of our weeks in order to be there.”
