Photo courtesy of Natalie Girardi

The Oakville Golden Girls pose for a group photo at one of their competitions. “I’ve made a lot of new friends and it’s made it more exciting,” Ella Rick (9) said. She added that the competition team wa a close group that was fun to be with.

Many clubs and organizations within the walls of OHS partake in a number of different competitions and events that require numerous amounts of time and effort. The Oakville Golden Girls is one of these groups that puts forth time and effort into their preparation for competitions. This month, the Golden Girls are set for takeoff to Orlando for the National Dance Competition and put all of their hard work forward on Feb. 12.

“Our practices are longer and we have more of them, and they’re definitely more rigorous,” Natalie Girardi (12) said. “For football season, it’s mostly just getting to know the routine instead of it being as important for it to be super clean. For competition, we work on the same routines for months straight.”

Considering the Golden Girls have put so much preparation into the competition and their practices for it, many of them have already experienced similar things because they have done dance in previous years. 

“I’ve been dancing competitively since I was four, so I’ve always been wanting to do Golden Girls,” Ashlyn Petlansky (9) said. “…At my dance studio, I’ve been dancing with all of the older girls that go there, so I always looked up to them to do this.”

Since many Golden Girls have had experience with dance, they were adept to the hard work that would be necessary for not only the team in general, but especially the competitions. 

“It’s exactly what I expected. We put a lot of hard work into what we do, and we have a lot of time and practice every day after school,” Petlansky said. “…We get what we want out of it, and it’s just really fun.”

Similar to Petlansky, another OHS Golden Girl, Ella Rick (9), also said that she has had a lot of fun this year and it has made her freshman year more exciting. But while the Golden Girls know how to manage all of their practices and preparation time while also enjoying it, it would be challenging to do without some of them taken on leadership roles. 

“So we don’t have any set captains, but our seniors are definitely leaders for things like warm-ups at practices, but all of the upperclassmen help out,” Girardi said.

Even though there aren’t any set leadership roles, all of the team members help out in ways that they are able to, building a sense of community and teamwork that can make some of them feel more comfortable within other aspects.

“I think its gotten me really involved with school and just knowing my way around and being more known,” Petlansky said. “I’m very comfortable with where I am.”