The school brought on two new drill team coaches to the staff: Hannah Pascual and Ally Turquette. Pascual takes on the role of head coach, and Turquette is assistant coach to the varsity team and head coach to the junior varsity team.
“I’ve never been to a school where so much of the alumni and community really care about the program,” Pascual said. “My biggest focus is making sure [the team] is something I’m proud of and the community can continue to pour into and be proud of.”
Pascual taught dance for eight years and before coming to the school, and Pascual was an assistant coach at Hebron High School where she taught for one year. Turquette was a long-term substitute coach at Frisco Emerson High School for a few months.
“The hardest part, but also the best part, is both of us are coming in new,” Turquette said. “We’re still living up all those traditions, but also putting our twist on it. We’re putting a modernized twist on it.”
Pascual was familiar with the program and heard about the open positions from the previous coaches. After doing an interview and sending choreography to admin, she was given the position of head coach. Turquette interviewed with Pascual for the position of assistant coach, and after sending choreography to Pascual, she was named assistant coach of the Farmerettes.
“Anytime meeting a new coach, it’s a little scary, so you want to make a good impression,” Farmerette captain Katherine Gore said. “So I was terrified, I was like ‘Oh no, they’re going to hate me,’ but within a couple minutes I knew they were really sweet people and they just wanted what was best for the team.”
Pascual started dancing at 14 years old, as a freshman in high school, and Turquette has been dancing since she was 2 years old. Additionally, both coaches were on their high school drill teams. Both coaches feel passionately about dance and connecting with the young dancers on the team.
“We definitely like focusing on team bonding things,” Pascual said. “We’ve really focused on having the big-sis-little-sis interactions be a bigger thing, where they have multiple points of contact within the team.”
The coaches have started a new practice schedule for the girls, which includes 6:30 a.m. practices every day and occasional afternoon practices when needed. The new coaches also introduced a skirt routine, which is a first for the dancers.
“It’s very different, and I think it’s better,” Gore said. ”I think we’re more organized as a team. They have high expectations, but they expect you to meet the challenge because they know you can. I think we have a stronger community and we’re stronger dancers.”
