Chargerettes Season Recap
Photo by Roberta Pratt.
McKenzie Mamayek
After a long, successful year, the Chargerettes 2024 season is coming to a close. From performing during halftime at football games to attending Nationals in Florida, this team has brought home many wins throughout the year. These girls have had serious dedication and commitment to their team and spent hours perfecting their routines, all while creating new memories throughout the season. With the team’s return from Florida, let’s recap their many accomplishments throughout their season.
With the various competitions the Chargerettes attended, they faced difficult competition. However, this team was able to prevail nonetheless and prove they deserved their success. They started their season off on a high placing 1st in Pom and 2nd in Jazz at their first competition at Wauwatosa West High School, and continued to place in the top 3 at numerous competitions that followed. This includes the highly competitive Ashwaubenon meet where they placed 2nd (by less than a point) in D1 Hip Hop, 2nd in D1 Jazz, and 5th in D1 Pom. The Chargerettes’ incredible success this season landed them their invite to the State competition and Nationals in Florida.
The Chargerettes had attended State in these past few weeks where their hard work all season was put to the test. They continued their streak of placing in the top three and earned State Champion Runners-up for D1 Jazz, and 3rd for D1 Hip Hop. After their victories at state, they continued to practice for the following weeks up until their trip to Florida to compete at the national level. They earned Grand Champion Runner-Up for Large Group Pom and placed 3rd in Hip Hop. Their success at the state and national level has proven their hard work and dedication throughout the season have paid off, and a big congratulations to these girls for their many accomplishments this season.
Also, a few well-earned shoutouts to the duets and solo competitors on the Chargerettes for their continued success this season. At Regionals, the Chargerettes had four duets compete. Isabelle and Peyton placed 1st, Addi and Mali placed 3rd, Ashley and Lexi placed 4th, and Alex and Maya placed 13th. This team also had 2 All-State Winners: Mia Cady and Isabelle Ramirez. Congratulations, again!
As every season comes to an end, the hardest, most emotional part is saying goodbye to the seniors. The Chargerettes have seven very talented seniors who deserve to be recognized for their dedication to this team and the memories they have created throughout their years of dance. The head coach of the Chargerettes, Mary Deeken, also had a lot of positive things to say about these girls. Here are the Chargerettes 2024 senior dancers!
““Part of what elevated our year this season, and for that matter last season, is our incredible group of seniors. They are all extremely driven and detailed, and in dance, this translates to a work ethic like no other. With an average GPA so far this year of 4.2, they can excel in school while being part of the dance team’s long season —May through March!” ”
Alex Turner
What is your favorite Chargerettes memory?
My favorite Chargerettes memory is performing at the homecoming pep rally every year and performing at halftime during football season.
What will you miss most about dance?
What I will miss most is the feeling I get right before performing at a competition. It's like a mix of giddiness, nervousness, and excitement. I will also miss the feeling after I just performed, and the crowd cheering so loud. It just makes me feel so proud.
What are your plans after graduation?
I plan on attending a 4-year university but am still undecided, and I plan on majoring in biology on the pre-PA track.
What Coach Deeken had to say:
“Four-year member of the dance team has been dancing since elementary school. She is one of our motivators on the team. Team members (and coaches) come to her for advice and counsel.”
Ava Goetsch
What is your favorite Chargerettes memory?
My favorite Chargerettes memory is winning state my freshman year or nationals my sophomore year! Also, creating such a close bond with my team senior year was amazing :)
What will you miss most about dance?
The biggest thing I’m going to miss about dance is the feeling of being able to dance as a team and get that adrenaline feeling when you walk on stage.
What are your plans after graduation?
My plans after graduation are to attend Marquette University and major in nursing!
What Coach Deeken had to say:
“Dance member for four years, also has been dancing since elementary school. She is also an award-winning ballroom dancer. In her spare time, she works with younger dancers to pass on her knowledge and make dance in the district better.”
Lexi Rugg
What is your favorite Chargerettes memory?
My favorite memory from Chargerettes is watching our routines directly after performing at State. It is such a positive and exciting environment every year, and I love that the team is always so proud while watching our performances!
What will you miss most about dance?
The competitive atmosphere that comes with dance is what I will miss most. I will miss that team motivation to work hard not just for myself, but for my teammates as well. Moreover, the strong friendships I have made along the way, and having a built-in close group of friends is another thing I will miss about being on the Chargerettes.
What are your plans after graduation?
I am planning to attend UW-Madison in the fall and will be majoring in Chemical Engineering!
What Coach Deeken had to say:
“Dance member for four years and also has been dancing since elementary school. Lexi is such an incredibly detailed leader. She holds herself and the entire team to the highest standard. That makes all of us better.”
Jenna Fure
What is your favorite Chargerettes memory?
My favorite memory from the Chargerettes was winning Nationals in Florida during my Sophomore year. I will never forget the moment when we all unexpectedly won a Large Pom national title!
What will you miss most about dance?
I will miss the crowd's energy after every competition performance. The feeling that we put it all out there and did the best we could will never be beaten. Performing at regionals and state was the best feeling, and I will definitely miss it!
What are your plans after graduation?
I plan on attending the University of Minnesota and majoring in nursing.
What Coach Deeken had to say:
“Dance team member for four years has been dancing since elementary school. Incredibly strong performer and a hip-hop queen! Jenna had a season-ending injury last year and spent the year helping coach the team to state!”
Ashley Dempski
What is your favorite Chargerettes memory?
My favorite Chargerettes memory is last year at our regionals competition when we got first place in the D1 Pom category. All of us couldn’t believe it because we had beaten our biggest competitor Franklin. I will never forget how excited and proud all of us were.
What will you miss most about dance?
I will miss being with my best friends every day. We practice so much during the school year and summer that our team is very close. I wouldn’t go longer without seeing my teammates than more than a week, unless we had some type of break. I’ve made so many strong bonds with girls on the team that it’s hard that I won’t see them so often anymore.
What are your plans after graduation?
My plan after graduation is to attend the University of Minnesota to major in social work!
What Coach Deeken had to say:
“High school dance team member for 4 years, dancing since elementary school. Ashley is a strong leader with an incredibly positive attitude! Such a talent!”
Peyton Neese
What is your favorite Chargerettes memory?
My favorite Chargerettes memory is winning state for hip hop my freshman year. That was seriously the best feeling and such a great way to start off the next four years I would be on this team. I also will forever remember both times I went to Disney for our national competition. Those few days I spent in Florida with the team were so much fun.
What will you miss most about dance?
The thing I will miss the most about dance is the people. I love all of the girls on this team, as well as the coaches, and it feels like they are all my built-in best friends. I’m going to miss seeing all these girls at practice basically every day. I also absolutely love performing and competing, which I am definitely going to miss.
What are your plans after graduation?
After graduation, I will be attending the University of Iowa with a major in nursing.
What Coach Deeken had to say:
“Dance member for four years has been dancing since elementary school, incredibly talented dancer, with college-level turning ability. Won the top duet in the state with Isabelle this year.”
Isabelle Ramirez
What is your favorite Chargerettes memory?
My favorite Chargerettes memory is competing at state this past year because we were super proud of all of our performances and they were the best we'd done all season. I also loved performing at the pep rally each year for homecoming.
What will you miss most about dance?
What I will miss the most about dance is the feeling I get before and after performing. There's a wide variety of emotions but I always feel excitement, pride, and nervousness; everything happening in life goes away when I dance and all I can focus on is the performance at hand. I will also miss the group of girls I got to dance with this year. It was the closest group of girls I've ever gotten to dance with, which made the season so much better!
What are your plans after graduation?
After graduation, I plan on attending Marquette University for four years under their Business Administration program to major in Marketing.
What Coach Deeken had to say:
“Dance member for four years, also has been dancing since elementary school, voted top dancer for tricks and leaps by her peers, motivates by example! She is one of the hardest workers! She was the other half of the winning duet in the state this year.”
