The group was part of the ReliaQuest Bowl held in Tampa, Florida, from Raymond James Stadium, home to the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in January. A crowd of 35,797 fans packed the stadium to watch the Mississippi State Bulldogs beat the Illinois Fighting Illini, 19-10.

For MNW head coach Kristin Gansz, this was the chance to fulfill a goal she had since taking over the program.

“I have always wanted to take the team to a bowl game for a bigger performance opportunity than the team normally has,” Gansz said. “We compete at our state competition and dance at basketball games, but I wanted the team to experience performing on a much larger scale.

“The financial aspect of the trip was one thing we had to really look at before committing to it. We knew how much money we had to fundraise to make the trip possible. We couldn’t have done it without all of our business sponsors and lots of team fundraisers.”

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Members of the dance team who were involved in the trip included Ashley Westering, Preslie Oswald, Miranda Pohlman, Kylee Skramstad, Emmaly Durschmidt, Emily Schroeder, Lorna Tucker, Ella Niewoehner, Elly Habben, Raygin Anderson and Cheyanne McFarland. Lydia Niewoehner, the younger sister of Ella, also attended and danced.

“When the team found out, they were so excited and so were most of the parents,” Gansz said. “They had a countdown of days until they left for the trip. It was really fun to have something extra to look forward to.”

Nearly 700 performers ranging in grades second through 12th took part in pregame and halftime shows celebrating the 37th anniversary of the bowl game in Tampa Bay. Dancers took up the entire field for a “Rock The Football” routine before kickoff, and remained on the field for the National Anthem and flyover.

During halftime, the dancers joined five high school bands to provide live music for the show, performing a number of songs.

“They had to learn all of the pregame choreography and the entire halftime choreography through video before arriving in Florida,” Gansz said. “Once in Florida, they practiced a total of 17 hours in preparation for game day.”

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Along with the bowl game, the group also went to Disney, Busch Gardens, Clearwater Beach and had a dinner cruise.

“Every day was packed full,” Gansz said. “We didn’t have much down time.”