Flames performed  a dance with teachers of their choice at the pep rally Sept.26.

“I thought we could use a pep rally that was more focused on fun than professionalism, which is a major focus for drill teams,” Flames coach Jana Davis said. 

Flames and teachers practiced Sept. 22  and Sept. 25 after school.

“When I saw how much fun the Flames and their teachers were having, and the relationships that were built not only between the teachers and the students, but also between the teachers and the program as a whole, I knew it would have to be a tradition for us,” Davis said.

Assistant Principal Ryan Race said his favorite part about learning the dance was working with his Flame.

“I did not learn the dance very well,” Race said. “I had to miss practice for some appointments, so I really only got 10 minutes of practice. But with that being said, Jess and I have done some dances in the past, so she was very helpful in making sure I didn’t make as big a fool of myself.”

Race said he went to the practices, watched the videos that were sent out, and stretched in order to prepare himself for the dance.

“It always feels good to be chosen by the Flames,” Race said. “I have been doing it for about a decade and a half. In fact, I actually danced with Miss Crawford way back in the day when she was on Flames, same with a bunch of other captains and people throughout the years. I’ve done a lot of the pep rallies and football games throughout the years, and coincidentally I am now the principal over the Flames.”

Race said he always has fun dancing with the Flames

“It’s a great group of girls with good leadership,” Race said.

Junior Jessica Mahoney said dancing with Race was a fun experience.

“Mr. Race waited until the last minute to learn the dance so it was awesome seeing him learn it so fast,” Mahoney said.

Mahoney said the Flames goal was to make sure that everyone had fun.

“My favorite part was coming up with code words for Mr. Race to remember the dance,” Mahoney said.

History teacher and boys basketball coach Jaden Napolez said his favorite part of the dance was being able to do it with so many different people.

“We had two practices that were about an hour to an hour and a half long, so a lot of work went into it,” Napolez said. “It was pretty cool to see what the Flames do each week, and learning a new dance and performance and stuff.”

Napolez said he likes to dance so he would do the student teacher dance again.

“It felt awesome that I was chosen,” he said. “Hartley is the student that chose me, and I had her as a student last year. It meant a lot to be asked, because that means, obviously I’ve made an impact on a student, it kind of helps me continue on.”

Junior Hartley Johnson said she picked Napolez because she had him her sophomore year for history and they were always joking around in class, so she knew she would have fun learning the dance with him.

“We  both had such a great experience learning the dance,” she said. “We both picked it up really fast and we were both having a great time. Coach Nap would get really into it every time we would go over the dance! Seeing him having so much fun and being himself was definitely my favorite part.”

Algebra two teacher Joseph Johnson said it was fun learning the dance and interacting with the other teachers and Flames

“It was a great honor to be chosen to dance with the flames,” he said. “I am not the best dancer, and I definitely was nervous beforehand due to my complete lack of rhythm, but I also want to follow what I teach to the students, which is to at least try and give it your best.” 

Johnson said he hopes that  his students put themselves out there even with the opportunity of failure. 

“I don’t expect students to be the best at math, but I at least hope they feel safe enough in my classroom to try their hardest even if they are not going to be the best, like I wasn’t the best in the dance,” he said.

Johnson said he did the dance last year, so he thought it would be fun to do it again.

“The reason I chose Mr.Johnson was because he was telling me how he did it last year so I thought it would be fun to have him do it again,” junior Apollonia Martinez said. “It was really fun learning a new dance in a week, it was also a little nerve racking but we encouraged ourselves so that we would do good and have fun.”