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Health & Fitness

Redmond Drill Team-ready for a new year

My name is Jennifer, I’m the Advisor of Eastside Precision Drill Team (a Redmond based community drill team) and I'm excited (and nervous) to have my first blog posted!  I spent my youth marching with a Seattle drill team and somewhere along the way it became my passion, an addiction really.  I have been marching, instructing, or involved some way with drill teams for the past 31 years and the last 6 years have been working with Eastside Precision Drill Team; a team that I helped start up with my friends Heather and Kelle.  Eastside Precision Drill Team is a year around activity organized and run by volunteers who have an amazing love for drill, the kids, and families involved with the greater drill team family (we're part of the Seattle Drill Team Association and there are 11 other member teams).  The girls currently on our team range in age from 10 to 19 but we’ve had as young as 6 year old on our team.  In fact, one of the current team members who has been on our team since our very first practice on May 15th 2007 was 6 years old (turning 7 the next week) on that first practice. 

This time of the year we are winding down from what we call “parade season” (mainly the summer) and gearing up for our awards ceremony and announcing next year’s team Officers (the kids who lead the team).  As an adult this time of the year is exciting because we get to see kids push themselves to become team leaders.  The girls who would like to try out for team Officer positions must memorize a short list of drills and then march the team as if they were Captain.  It is very rewarding for me to watch how the girls blossom during this challenge.  Shortly after we hold tryouts for team Officers we have our awards ceremony.  This is a wonderful day where our team parents, friends, and members of teams we compete against come together to honor our girls and our team.  We hand out team pictures, watch a slide show recapping the year, announce awards for various achievements, thank our supporters, and of course reveal our new team Officers. 

The awards ceremony caps off our year but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a good time to join our team.  Any time is a good time to join our team since we welcome new members all year long.  However, as a new school year starts and kids are working on being focused and disciplined for school, our team is a great place to learn focus, self-control, self-esteem, and discipline all while meeting new friends and having fun. 

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