Her Drill Team Beats the Drum for Self-Esteem

A dozen or so kids are standing in formation in front of the Pacoima Community Youth Culture Center. The older ones stand at the front, the younger ones are in the back. Beads of sweat glisten on their brows.

Suddenly, a pulsating drum rhythm blasts out of a tape player and, with a signal from their leader, the award-winning Ladies First-II Hype Dance, Drill and Gospel Team begins its dazzling routine.

“I love seeing the reaction of the people watching them perform,” said Vickie Johnson, the team’s coach, after the demonstration. “It can’t help but get you excited.”

That’s how just about everyone feels about Johnson, 37, whose volunteer efforts at the community center have helped earn the team several local and national drill-team trophies, and earned her a 1997 First Lady of California Volunteer award.

But Johnson does not give her time and energy to the community center for the awards and accolades. She does it out of love for the scores of boys and girls, ages 5 to 21, she has coached in dance, cheerleading and life skills during the past 13 years.

“When Vickie talks, everyone listens,” said Josie Guerrero, whose 8-year-old daughter Evelyn is one of the youngest kids on the team. “She takes the time when kids need help. She’s a mother figure.”

Johnson’s parenting duties extend beyond her drill-team students. The Pacoima resident also takes care of her two young nephews, and recently opened her home to two of “her girls” from the drill team.

“My parents never said no to my dreams and goals,” Johnson said. “I want to give the same encouragement to the kids I take care of.”

Her efforts have paid off.

“Vickie’s the reason I’m in college and the reason I don’t have children,” said Tameika Hall, 21, a Cal State Northridge student and longtime drill team member. “She has kept me focused and motivated.”

Johnson, whose flamboyant hairstyle belies her self-effacing personality, graduated from San Fernando High School in 1978, where she gained recognition for her innovative dance routines.

The Virginia native married right out of high school and followed her Marine Corps husband around the country for several years before settling in the Valley. The couple divorced in 1989.

Johnson’s first efforts at coaching a drill team in 1984 resulted in the Valley Girls, a group of 30 young women who performed at local Christmas parades and schools.

In 1988, Johnson began a long association with the San Fernando Valley Boys & Girls Club, where she established the Ladies First-II Hype Dance, Drill and Gospel Team, which combined the Valley Girls and a group of boys she had coached at a Pacoima park.

The drill team placed third at a national competition in Louisville last summer and recently captured first place at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Inner-City Games at USC.

Fund-raising efforts are underway to cover expenses for a major competition in Chicago next spring.

The trip is important to the team for rewards that extend way beyond the trophies.

“The drill team boosts our self-esteem,” said Granada Hills’ Kennedy High School alumna and team co-captain Toiyuan Forte, 18. “And then there’s Vickie. She’s helped me through my ups and downs and has kept my outlook positive.”

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