With a sense of urgency borne of desire and determination, the Odessa High School Showgirls have brought their first Grand National Championship in 10 years back to campus.
OHS competed in the American Dance Drill Team Nationals in Denton. The Showgirls competed in the small team division that consisted of 10 teams total, including Permian which came in second overall.
Showgirls Head Director Kristina Rios said the team has competed in this contest last year. They typically go every other year, but this year was their second in a row.
“Last year we did really well, as well, but we didn’t get overall first. I think we placed third overall last year … in the small team category. … But we still did really well in placing overall and then in our team routines, we did really well, too. We went back again this year and we did 10 times better than what we did last year,” Rios said. There are 22 girls on the team and all 22 danced and competed. Rios said she has all grades — from freshmen to seniors.
Rios said she has five freshmen, 10 or 11 sophomores, four juniors and three seniors, so she hopes a good portion will return. “I think when you have things taken away from you, like with COVID, the girls’ work ethic grew. Even from last year, their work ethic had changed, but it was hard. They were still kind of in a COVID funk where they didn’t want to prepare for something that was possibly going to be canceled. This year, knowing how normal it felt they really wanted to put towards the work ethic to be something and to let it be known, yes, we’ve been through the same thing as these other teams, but we want to come up on top. That’s exactly what they did,” Rios said.
She added that they have been through it all as a team — personally and all together.
“… It was just nice to come out with that type of win just knowing what kind of year we had …,” Rios said. This is Rios’ seventh year as head director of the Showgirls. “It meant the world to me,” Rios said of the win. “We actually cried. We cried be just because we know what kind of year we had. Me, personally, I lost my father in July. So for to come out with a win like this, the first thing that many people told me is … he was watching. He was my biggest fan and so it made my heart happy.”
She added that the girls being deprived of normalcy made them hungry to do well. “They’ve had so much taken away within the past two years. … As soon as they saw the green light for a normal year, it was like okay, let’s go. If we’re gonna have a green light, then we need to make sure we come out on top. We need to make sure we work hard,” Rios said.
She added that a lot of their success has to do with having Ashleigh Christian as her assistant director and officers who help lead the team.
“They made sure if we weren’t available for a hot second, they start warm-ups; they start practice. We’re constantly sending videos of what can we do to get better at tricks, or workouts and stuff like that to be stronger,” Rios said.
When they weren’t in the studio, they would send out group messages about how to correct pirouettes, for example.
“Practice is never just here in the studio. We always tell them it’s what you do at home …,” Rios said.
They also send videos from Instagram or TikTok that can help them grow.
“We’re always interacting with each other …” Rios said.
“It makes it even funner when they see a video we’re like, hey, y’all should try this and they turn around and come back and they try it, so it’s pretty cool,” Rios said.
Christian said this year they tried to instill a winning mindset in the team. “… A lot of times, the kids will say stuff like, well, we just want to go and do our best, which there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s really good to want to do your best, but I think this year we really emphasize not only do we want to do our best, but our best is going to win. We want a winning mindset, so I think that’s what helped, too, with like us constantly sending videos even after hours …,” Christian said.
This was especially true knowing they were competing with Permian in the same division, Rios said. “We’ll go to competitions together, but sometimes we’re not always in the same division. So that, I think, had a lot to do with it to knowing we were competing head to head with them and that’s why this win … makes it even bigger for us because it’s always that rivalry with OHS and Permian. Showgirls have not beat … the Panther Paws in 10 years. This year marks 10 years since the last time Showgirls beat them. … We both pushed that because we’re both OHS alumni …,” Rios said.
Thamara Ramirez, a 17-year-old senior, said she couldn’t have pictured the competition going any better than it did. Their first dance was at 7 a.m.
“We all thought we were going to be a little saggy and drained, but it kicked off really good and it stayed like that throughout the day. I feel like we couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Ramirez said. Seventeen-year-old junior Alexandra Guzman said they were working for this for six months. “We performed so good,” Guzman added.
Jesika Rubio, a 17-year-old senior, said she was glad about how things turned out.
“We did work a lot and it’s crazy to think how it took exactly 10 years to bring back to our school … I’m so happy that I’m ending my year like this,” Rubio said.
Itzel Perez, a 15-year-old ninth grader, said she was also pleased with the results.
“It being my first year, I was really happy with the team. We worked really hard for a long time. Some practices were really hard and tough, but it was all worth it in the end. All our hard work paid off and I’m just really proud of the team and what we accomplished,” Perez said. Rubio said she thought the difference in the team this year was that they were more determined. They felt like they could do better given how they did last year. Ramirez said she and Rubio thought it was their right to reach first place since it is their last year at OHS.
“And we always promised ourselves that we would walk out of OHS being national champions,” she added. Guzman said the other teams in the competition were advanced technique wise and they’ve trained since they were little to be where they are. “… We knew we knew that we could read them because we have passion and we have style and we have the hard work and dedication and we’ve all wanted that for so long. We knew could win,” Guzman said.
OHS Showgirls
>> Grand National Champions Small team division
>> National Champions Team Hip Hop
>> National Champions Team Contemporary
>> 2nd place Team Jazz
>> 2nd place Team Pep Rally
>> 4th place Team Pom
>> WOW Factor award for TEAM HIP HOP
This year was a big win for the Showgirls, Head Director Kristina Rios said in an email. It has been exactly 10 years since the Odessa Showgirls have competed against the Permian Panther Paws, beating them in multiple categories including the title of Grand National Champions.
Officer small Ensembles received
>> 1st and 2nd in the small ensemble category
>> 3rd place solo finalist – Junior Officer Alexandra Guzman
The Bronchette JV dance team competed at the American Dance Drill Team Nationals in Denton and received the following awards:
>> National Champions Team Hip Hop
>> 2nd Runner up Overall Grand National Champion
>> JV Duet Received National Champions
Rios said the Bronchettes JV dance team also made history by competing for the first time at a dance competition. This team has worked really hard while transitioning from a pep squad to a JV dance team with a new coach, Ivy Christian. They have all done a tremendous job throughout the year and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for this team, she wrote.
