Things don’t always go as planned.
Sometimes, they go better than planned.
That has been the case for the Villa Grove 2018-19 dance team.
Coming into her first season as a high school dance coach, Sarah Bouton was excited to work with the Villa Grove program.
Knowing that every team throughout Illinois had a similar goal: to excel at the IHSA Sectional competition, Villa Grove put everything it could into its 2018-19 performance.
“I think one of the biggest things we focused on putting in our performance was power and originality,” Bouton said. “The girls have opened up tremendously this year with new choreo and tricks.”
The 16-member squad dropped to 14 when two athletes had season-ending injuries.
“It is challenging to make choreography adjustments after injuries,” Villa Grove Athletic Director Noreen Acton said. “Our dance team does not have ‘subs’ to fill the roles of the injured athletes.”
Bouton said the team had ups and downs throughout the competition season, but used the adversity as motivation to work harder.
“We spent the last week cleaning like crazy and working on trick timing,” she said.
As East Central Illinois prepared for blizzard conditions Saturday afternoon, Acton connected with area Athletic Directors and the IHSA to see if the IHSA Sectionals would go on as planned.
Athletic Directors throughout East Central Illinois spoke with IHSA throughout the week to discuss the possibility of rescheduling the sanctioned event.
IHSA stood its ground throughout the week, saying the event would continue as scheduled.
Twenty-nine schools did not attend their respective IHSA Sectional events because of inclement weather.
The Villa Grove community wanted to make sure its dancers made it to the Mascoutah Sectional, a 2.5 hour drive from the school, by their performance time on Saturday.
“We decided to be proactive and secure hotel rooms for Friday night and asked parents to be responsible for transportation down and back,” Acton said. “ I am thankful for Villa Grove Athletics amazing parental support, booster club support and administrative support. Our coach was given directive to stay Saturday night as well, if weather conditions worsened or she did not feel comfortable making the trip home in the school vehicle.”
“If this were just another meet, we would not have spent the extra resources on hotel accommodations, but this was not just your average meet — it was an opportunity to quality for State and we did not want to give that up easily,” she continued. “Our Devilettes practice tirelessly throughout the season for this opportunity and we decided if we could find a way to get the girls there safely, we would follow through.”
The team practiced one last time before loading up on Friday.
“On Friday, I watched them run through the routine in the Villa Grove gym before they left for Mascoutah,” Acton said. “It gave me the chills. Their energy was remarkable. Their moves were clean. I was excited for their potential at Sectional.”
The sacrifice paid off.
Villa Grove took the top spot among the 13 teams participating in the Mascoutah Sectional. Four teams did not participate in the competition because of the weather.
“We were so grateful to have the opportunity to attend our Sectional on Saturday, and just wanted to hold our heads high no matter what the outcome was,” Bouton said. “When our name was announced for Sectional Champs I just sat there for a second because I think myself and all the girls were still in shock, it still seems a little surreal. There were so many great teams that we had the privilege to share the floor with and are proud to be apart of such a great organization.”
Villa Grove will take the stage at 1:01 p.m. on Friday for the IHSA State Competition at Grossinger Motors Arena in Bloomington.
Bouton said the week will be spent focusing on making the performance even better.
“We are ready to hit the ground running tonight and the rest of the week at practice with changes and lots of cleaning,” she said.
The Villa Grove community already has plans to send the girls off with a pep assembly and fan bus Friday.
The Devilettes last Sectional title was in 2015 when they placed third at the IHSA State Finals.
With about 200 students, Acton said Villa Grove is one of the smallest schools to participate in the IHSA Class 1A Competitive Dance division.
“We compete against schools with up to 1195 students in Class A and against schools performing different dance genres,” she said.
Acton said she was proud to see that area schools St. Joseph-Ogden and Unity, who also performed hip-hop routines, qualified for IHSA State from the Mascoutah Sectional.
“It was a great weekend for Central Illinois hip-hop teams,” Acton said.
Members of the state-bound Villa Grove Dance Team are Seniors Chelsea Harrison, Kaitlyn Morse, Taylor Risken, Alexis Vandeventer, Tommie Hooker, Juniors Molly Mixell, Payton Campbell, Haley Sappenfield, Taylor Wilson, Sophomores Keagan Champagne, Sara Stutz, Lily Lawrence, Kaitlyn Duke and Freshmen Ava Vollmer, Taylur Orwick and Molly Little.
Villa Grove will also compete in the hip-hop division of the the Illinois Drill Team Association competition the second week of February.
They were IDTA State Champions in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
