The freshmen Highsteppers may have some challenges balancing out high school and drill team, but they have their veterans to help them when things get tough.

“[The] veterans are very welcoming and they kind of like help you balance out school and drill team and homework and all that stuff so they’re very helpful with that,” freshmen Leah Milestone said.

“If I need help with some of my school work they would help me out. And in dance if I’m having trouble understanding something, then they’ll help me out with that as well because they’re very supportive,” freshman Evan Hill said.

The Highsteppers attend practice almost every morning at 5:52am. This can be nerve-racking for the freshmen starting out. The assistance of their fellow Highsteppers help push them through it.

“The girls really help me wake up during practice and a lot of girls have similar classes so they can help each other with that,” Highstepper Captain Lily Tetu said.

“I think for the first couple months, it’s going to be a little bit of a struggle especially since we get here at 5:52 in the morning so they’re having to figure out their sleep schedule and their work schedule and getting all of their homework done when they get home from school so they’re not up late and they’re not tired or up late before they have to come to practice,” Highstepper Director Cami Cole said.

The veterans can relate to the freshmen and their stress, because they were also strained by balancing school and drill team.

“That’s something you kind of handle better as you get older and the upperclassmen had opportunities for stress in other ways as far as school and things like jobs. So it’s going to take some time for the freshmen to kind of figure it out and figure out what they need to do handle that stress,” Mrs. Cole said.

“When I was a freshmen I really looked up to the veterans because I just felt like they were so great and I had so much to learn from them. Every time they taught me something new, I gained more information about high school and practice. It really helped me transition from middle school to high school,” Veteran Alysha Montgomery said.