SEWARD, Neb. – Head coach Daneen Kovar’s dance and cheer squads began their 2014-15 seasons on Wednesday night with competitions versus Doane that took place at halftime of the women’s and men’s basketball games inside Walz Arena. The Bulldog cheer squad came away with a win by a score of 53.5 – 51.5. Meanwhile, the Concordia dance team dropped a tight 82.65 – 81.9 competition.
Concordia University cheer, which an officially sponsored varsity sport this fall, earned the victory over the Tigers, led by captains Ashley Blunk and Katherine Vogel.
“This is a huge accomplishment for the cheer squad,” Kovar said. “We went in as a non-stunting squad to win against the stunting squad. They went out there with a very sharp and clean routine, which led them to a victory. The cheerleaders have worked so hard to get to this point and watching their performance last night made me extremely proud. We still have work to do before our next competition but this was a great start to our competition season. I look forward to seeing what the rest of our season brings.”
Performing at halftime of the women’s basketball game, the dance team, captained by senior Becca Odom, came up just short of Doane.
“Knowing how close we were with the scores is hard, however I feel that with improvements before our next competition, we have the possibility of greatly improving our scores,” Kovar said. “I’m proud of the team, they worked hard to get to this point and I feel that we have great strengths in our technical abilities to really increase our score with our next competition.”
Kovar, now in her fourth season as head coach, is assisted by Sara Halvorsen, a first-year graduate assistant.
The Bulldog dance team will also compete on Saturday, Jan. 31 at the annual Concordia Invitational Tournament hosted by Concordia University, Ann Arbor. Both dance and cheer will then look forward to the GPAC Dance and Cheer Invitational in Sioux City, Iowa, on Saturday, Feb. 7. Bulldog dance and cheer squads also appear at home basketball and wrestling events throughout the winter. View the complete schedule HERE.
For additional information on the dance and cheer programs, ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page.