High kicking into captain

The stands are full in the brand new Hawk Activity Center. It is the first time the school has gathered for a pep rally in almost two years. As the announcer introduces the Silver Wings, the melodic tweet of a whistle can be heard as junior Caroline Holloway leads her team out onto the floor.

Holloway was inducted as the Silver Wings captain as a junior — normally the captains are seniors.

“[When I found out I made captain], I was so overjoyed,” Holloway said. “I was honestly surprised because it was a really tough decision between me and another person who was going to be a senior, but I was super excited.”

The tryout process for becoming an officer includes writing a letter to the directors, going through interviews, choreographing and performing dances and putting together potential themes for Spring Show and other ideas. At the end of the tryout week, judges assign points to the candidates and use those points to decide the officer line and captain roles.

“The hardest part of the tryout was probably the last day,” Holloway said. “It was in the morning and it was a mock interview with the senior officers, and they asked us five questions and gave us feedback. I also performed the solo that I choreographed and the captain’s solo that Corinne, the [previous] captain, choreographed. Later that day we had the interview with the judges and performed both of the dances for them. Then we waited for two hours and found out our roles that night.”

Holloway stepped into her role over the summer by leading her team through line camp. At line camp, the team went over their dances and tweaked them. Holloway’s job was to lead the team through the counts and be on standby in case any questions arose.
“Line camp was the first time the whole team was together, and it was nice to see how the vibe of this team is different from the vibe of the team last year,” Holloway said. “As a rookie, all of the older people seemed intimidating, but being older and seeing the whole team was a lot of fun.”

Since officer tryouts are based on a point system, Holloway is not guaranteed the position of captain next year, but Bowling said she hopes to see her on the officer line. One of her fellow officers, junior lieutenant Jordan Ricker said she hopes to see Holloway grow as a leader.

“I hope to see that she grows as a person, even though she’s already an incredible human being,” Ricker said. “Growth is one of the things leaders normally wish to get out of their position, so that’s what my hope is for her.”

Although Holloway’s last full normal year was her freshman year, head director Anne Bowling says that she has done a great job fulfilling her duties as captain.

“She’s really stepped up to the plate, especially being so young,” Bowling said. “She was only on the team as a freshman for a normal year, and then that became a [COVID-19] year. She did a normal football season and then nothing was normal after that, but she’s done a great job with rising to the occasion and showing her leadership ability.”