On Oct. 4,the UTRGV Spirit Program announced the first Drill Team coming in 2025. Along with the new football team, this will be a new program added to Vaquero Nation.
The drill team has been in the making for several months. Head coach for the Spirit Program Isela Gomez discussed the experience she has had.
“We have been doing a little bit of research,” Gomez said. “We attended a few local area Texas football [game days] to kind of experience what the football game day was like, to kind of get ideas and [to] just put some notes on our soundboard to figure out what we wanted to use and utilize and what we thought maybe would work for us when it came to making our game day a reality.”
This program opens opportunities for anyone interested, especially current members of the UTRGV Spirit Program since they have the background experience to try out.
Spirit Program Coordinator and Head Cheer coach Rodolfo Mata explained the opportunities for these individuals that have that background of drill team style.
“I think this opens up the door because our dance team is a very specific style, so a drill team member that did it all through middle school and high school [is] used to the drill team style,” Mata said. “Our dance team currently doesn’t really do that as often, so I think that opens up the door to all those people that stopped dancing because our current dance team isn’t their style.”
Gomez did inform that the team will be based at the Brownsville campus, but they will be traveling to Edinburg for the games.
Since the launch of the Drill Team, the Spirit program has received over 200 applicants who are interested in being a part of the upcoming program.
Gomez talked about how the program was able to reach out to Rio Grande Valley high school drill team directors.
The first workshop for the team will take place Nov. 4, and tryouts will follow on Nov. 18.
If students are interested in being a part of the program, they can fill out a form at utrgv.edu/drillteam/.
This is Kevynne Aleman for Vaquero Radio.
