Owatonna High School Adds Dance Team for the 2017-18 Season

Owatonna's school board approved the addition of dance team Monday. Activities Director Ryan Swanson tweeted, "Work will begin immediately, our first season will be 2017-18!"

Dance team is a winter sport with two categories. High-kick division has a squad size of 34 and jazz has 26, though teams can compete with fewer than that. During the 2016-17 season, 184 schools offered dance. Owatonna becomes the ninth Big Nine team to have a dance team, joining Rochester Mayo, John Marshall, Century, Faribault, Albert Lea, Austin, Northfield and Winona.

The Huskies will compete in Class AAA with the Rochester teams and numerous South Suburban schools. The sport will be open to students in grades 7-12. In a letter to the school board, the Owatonna Athletic and Activities Department stated, "the athletic and activities department strongly recommends the addition of Dance to the athletic department. We recommend immediate implementation so we can develop a competitive schedule, schedule practices, recruit and hire coaches, and develop our organizational structure for the 2017-18 school year."

The Minnesota State High School League state tournament is held in mid-February. At the 2017 event, Eastview, a Section 1 team, won both the jazz and high-kick AAA categories. Benilde-St. Margaret's won AA jazz. Sartell-St. Stephen won AA high-kick. Faribault placed in the top five in both divisions. Aitkin won the Class A titles in both. The event was held at Target Center.