PLACENTIA : Song Team Has a Lot to Cheer About

The five song leaders balancing on their hands and knees behind Valencia High School had smiles on their faces that belied the uncomfortable positions they were in.

Also smiling were five other girls who were arched backward over their teammates on the ground.

But because this was only practice and not a performance, the 10 Valencia song leaders grumbled as they tried several times to hit the position to the satisfaction of adviser Jonna Robinson.

The strength, agility and stamina needed to perform “the arches,” as the song leaders call the position, during their two-minute dance routine helped the group win the Miss Drill Team USA competition in April.

The song leaders are seniors Megan Collins, Stephanie Cisneros, Jenni Gazich, Summer Shepard, Liezel Jiminez and April Orand and juniors Cami Trigsted, Rebeckah Ramirez, Kim Dodds and Amy Valenzuela.

Performing to a medley of songs, the song leaders competed against 21 teams from across the country. Winning the competition, which was held at El Camino College in Torrance, advanced Valencia to an international competition this summer in Japan.

According to Robinson, the recent competition featured some of the most talented song leaders in the country.

“The competition from schools in the Fresno area, as well as schools from Southern California, was intense,” Robinson said. “Those two areas consistently have the best song teams.”

The song leaders began learning their routines last summer. Working with choreographer Guy Woodson and Robinson, the team mastered its performance routine and several shorter routines it performed at school athletic events.

During the fall and early winter months, the group performed mainly at school events and games. The competition season began in January.

For the next four months the song leaders practiced two to five days a week for several hours a day. They competed in six competitions, winning three of them, placing second in one and fifth and seventh in the two others.

At the international competition, Valencia will compete against groups from nine other countries. The team will also travel to Seoul for an exhibition at the Olympic Plaza.

The group is not concerned with the other teams that will be in Japan. Right now, it is focusing on getting there. Although the organization sponsoring the competition is providing lodging and meals, the girls have to pay their own air fare, $11,000 for the group.

They estimate they have raised a total of $1,000 through the sale of cinnamon rolls, donated by a song leader’s mother from the bakery she owns, and from donations. The group has also planned a carwash and a parking lot sale.