Courtesy Photo Marc Anthony Creado
The first UTRGV Drill Team in university history is ready to show its school spirit as football season approaches.
Leading the team forward is senior Captain Marc Anthony Creado. He is pursuing a bachelor’s degree of arts in dance and plans to have his own high school dance and drill team.
Creado’s dance journey began in middle school where he discovered his love and passion for dance. Now, he is ready to shape the future of the UTRGV Drill Team.
Creado shared his gratitude for the opportunity of being able to dance at the collegiate level.
“It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, especially because other drill teams in the state of Texas that are not male friendly,” he said. “So, being able to continue to still do what I love to do at a collegiate level, where I can’t go anywhere else and do, it really hit home because I wanted to continue dancing after [high] school, but in the way that I’ve always known dance, which was the drill.”
As part of a newly founded team, Creado spoke about the responsibilities he carries as captain.
“It’s a lot of responsibilities because it’s a lot of work that you really have to be dedicated to do,” he said. “Even as captain, we’re making up choreography, we’re finding music that we can dance to, we’re still looking for other types of uniforms, what we can wear and what we shouldn’t wear. It’s a lot of the background work that not a lot of people get to see.”
With the first football season rapidly approaching, Creado shared that the team visited other colleges’ game days to get a sense of what techniques will be performed.
He said although the team got to experience what a game day could look like, there’s still some uncertainty of what to expect.
“It’s not confusing, it’s just that we’ve never had a football season so we don’t know what we’re walking into and we don’t know what to expect,” Creado said. “I’m hoping its a fun field day with getting to see the community, getting wild up, and seeing the other spirit programs and the marching band itself come together.”
As the team grows and welcomes new members, he said the sense of family only continues to strengthen.
“The dynamic of the team just keeps on growing and growing, like, we are just one big family,” Creado said. “We do many things together and we see each other three days out of the entire week. Hopefully, with the spring tryouts, we add more people but we also keep growing as a family.”
With the dance and cheer team representing UTRGV at competitions, he reflected on the idea for future drill competitions.
“I think right now we’re still trying to evolve,” Creado said. “So, I don’t think that we would quickly be out on the competition floor like the dance team is, but hopefully soon.”
The UTRGV Drill Team will continue to enhance its skills for future athletic and collegiate events.
This is Leonardo Guajardo for Vaquero Radio.
