Photo Credit: Aaron Parham
By Aaron Parham ’26
Conestoga Valley High School Step Team is preparing for their end of year performance during the school’s pep rally through relentless hard work and effort.
Shaun Karli, a CVHS English Teacher and Advisor of step commented on the origin of the clubs, “ She [a student] asked me if I would be an advisor and I said yes”
He also said about how he learned Step, “ I just watched them practice everyday, I just kind of picked it up,” and “I could hear the beat in my head even when I wasn’t watching I could remember what the beats was and I could sort of figure out what the moves were.”
Olivia Hess, also a CVHS English Teacher and the Co advisor of step said, “To anybody that has even an inkling of interest in it [Step] do it now because it’s worth it.”
Junior Alison Diaz is the Captain of step stated, “ I’ve always seen it [Step] in movies and colleges and I was like I wanted to do something like that and I wanted to make myself proud.”
Diaz also said, “We practice nonstop but, when it’s the day of [a performance] I don’t make them practice as much because I know that they know it and I don’t want them to get burned out.”
She also said, “It [Step] is for both genders, it’s for anyone who wants to feel included” and “Anybody’s who’s any ethnicity too”
Sophomore Zaini Saif said, “It’s really fun [the team dynamic] were all basically just friends and we have fun and all that stuff, we’ve never had any bad moments”
Abigaelle Francklin’26 stated, “We’re very nice to each other,very helpful as well and we encourage each other”
Orion Ayia Jila Shillia ’26 said, “There’s never a day where we all come purposely being mean to each other. We all try to be supportive. If anybody’s struggling we take the time to teach everybody.”
Shillia also said, “Like any sport or any activity it can be intense.” She also commented “We kind of got to align.” and “If one of us messes up it’s all of us.”
She said, “I always liked step, I liked how the step team was kind of not different, It called out to me it wasn’t something like cheerleading or maybe it’s my version of cheerleading or dance teams.”
Shillia also said, “You should give it [Step] a chance and try and learn because here you can quite literally be yourself, nobody’s going to be mean,nobody’s going to have those days where they’re out to get you.”