Varsity Knightline has been practicing for more than 35 hours every week since June–about the same amount of hours as a full-time job–dedicating time to work on twirls, tricks, and other stunts in order to perfect their routines before performing on the biggest stage: Nationals. The team is set to leave on Jan. 30 to attend the competition which will be held at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

“I think there is a lot of pressure for us to do well at Nationals,” sophomore Kristina Mckay said. “Nationals is the hardest level to get to and we want all of our hard work to pay off.”

In addition to improving their routines to make sure that they are perfect at Nationals, the team has also been working to stay strong mentally by not letting the pressure to do well get to them. Because the team didn’t make it to the finals at Nationals last year, they hope to make an impression with their new jazz and hip-hop routines.

“Even though the team didn’t make it to finals at Nationals [last year], I think it was still a great experience for the team,” junior Monica Friedman said.

According to senior Ashley Perry, the team is fixing mistakes from last year in order to be more confident going into the competition, and she also believes that the team has the potential to do very well at Nationals and make it to finals. After working hard to place first at Elite Camp over summer with their jazz dance routine, and making a name for themselves in different competitions throughout the season, the team is well on their way to Nationals.

“We have been dancing together as a team and giving it our best in practices in hopes to reach our goal of making it to finals this year,” Perry said.