Oswego High School Step Team Takes Second Place at Nationals

The following was provided by Oswego 308:

Prior to taking the stage in their first national competition, Oswego High School Step Team Coach Monica Martin compared her team to the boiling point of water. “We were hot in Oswego,” she said, “but we have to take it a degree higher.” 

On March 16, the Oswego High School Divas and Gents Step Team did just that and brought home a second place trophy from the Music City Step Fest National Competition at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Performing for the Divas and Gents were Oswego High School students Adianis Contreras (co-captain), Tony DeLuna, Brandon Heinz, Alexa Hernandez, Amanda Hoffman, Yvette Montoya, Leslye Ortiz, Jelyssa Ramos, Sarah Thies and Taylor White.

The team also includes members Renee Keyvan (co-captain) and Daniel Ornelas as well as the coaching staff of Martin and assistant coaches Heather Hernandez, Daniel Lozoya and Stacy Harper. 

“On behalf of the students and staff of Oswego High School, I want to congratulate the Step Team on their outstanding achievement by finishing first in the state of Illinois and then capturing second place at the National Competition,” said Oswego High School Principal Mike Wayne. “We are extremely proud of the team's continued hard work and dedication which has resulted in their program reaching elite status in the state of Illinois as well as nationally.”

The Oswego High School Divas and Gents Step Team was formed in October 2003 by four OHS students and teacher Stacy Harper. Step teams emerged from historical African American fraternities and sororities (Divine 9). Many Latino/Latina and multicultural groups participate in stepping as well. Stepping is “a historically black tradition characterized by synchronized hand foot movements, along with singing, dancing, chanting and acting,” coach Martin explained.

This year the OHS team joined the National Step Show Alliance (NSSA) and the Illinois Stepping League. Previously, the OHS step team competed through a state dance organization, but found that the organization focused primarily on dance elements associated with lyrical, kick, pompon, jazz and modern dance forms.

“This organization did not have enough knowledge to really judge all of the elements that are associated with step,” Martin said. “The judging through the Illinois Stepping League has taken stepping to a different level and has raised the bar on the elements our students must acquire such as rotationals, vocal clarity, ripples and syncopation.”

During the national competition in Tennessee, the students participated in two college tours (Lipscomb University and Tennessee State University), participated in a group dinner with all the other first place step teams from across the nation and visited a community health fair.