On Thursday, April 6, the Buccaneers will aim to further the school’s storied history of success.
Led by 11th-year head coach Sarah Barland Flisowski and second-year assistant Amanda Logback, the Blinn cheer and dance teams will head to the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Fla., where the two squads will battle for titles in both National Cheerleaders Association and National Dance Alliance competition.
Barland Flisowksi’s cheer team is vying for its seventh NCA championship, while her dance squad hopes to bring home its ninth and 10th titles.
“We have been working extremely hard,” Barland Flisowski said. “I know lots of coaches say that, but we’ve been as dedicated to our nationals routines as we have been to our Blinn gameday stuff. We spend our time as two programs working on routines for all of the different things that we are doing, and that serves as a testament to how hard everyone here works.”
(Pictured: Members of the Blinn dance team perform their routine during the team’s nationals show-offs March 31)
Blinn dance will compete in two categories in Daytona: National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Pom, and NCAA Division III Team Dance. The Bucs will perform a two-minute routine and are eying their first title since 2021.
“I personally believe that we’re ready this year,” sophomore Daphne Cantu said. “Our team has been working hard for two semesters and the experience our sophomores who experienced Daytona last year bring is going to help. We have been able to tell the freshmen what to expect and what it takes to be successful.”
Barland Flisowski installed what she described as the program’s “most difficult” team dance routine during her time at Blinn. The coach worked with the renowned dance company Tribe 99 to construct her team’s choreography and her athletes have bought into the routine’s demands.
“The entire dance is its own element technique- and style-wise,” sophomore Skylar Cox said. “We learned from our mistakes last year and the takeaway from not winning a championship was that changes needed to be made. That kind of led to this routine being on an entirely different level than last year and we’re excited.”
For the team’s pom routine, Barland Flisowski and her squad again worked with TJ Maple, coordinator of cheer and dance, as well as head dance coach at Stephen F. Austin University.
Sixteen dancers will compete for the Bucs in both the team and pom competitions.
Blinn cheer will bring 17 athletes to the mats, where they will vie for a title in the NCA Advanced Small Coed Junior College competition.
(Pictured: Blinn freshman Cadence Mouton performs with the Buccaneer cheer team during the team’s nationals show-offs March 31)
University of New Hampshire head cheerleading coach Scott Rigoli worked with the Buccaneer cheerleaders to construct their two-minute performance, which Barland Flisowski said also saw an uptick in difficulty.
“We have tons of talent on the cheer side,” Barland Flisowski said. “This routine is really going to allow us to showcase all of our kids and bring out our best.”
Sophomore Camari Riley said that after his team received its choreography in January, the intensity levels of practices have risen as the group looks to bring its best to Daytona.
“We’re prepared,” he said. “We’ve gotten to the point where we’re ready and we’ve gotten all of the nerves and jitters out, and we’re ready to go. Everyone seems to be ready and that’s what you want with nationals right around the corner.”
Blinn cheer and dance performed their nationals routines alongside the Texas A&M club cheer and Aggie dance teams during a nationals show-offs performance Friday at the Kruse Center on the Blinn-Brenham Campus. The teams put an emphasis on putting forth a nationals-worthy performance for the crowd.
“We haven’t hit zero during a rehearsal yet, which means we haven’t achieved zero deductions,” Riley said. “We’re close, and I know we can get there, so the show-offs are an opportunity to fine-tune everything and give us a confidence boost before we put it all out there in Daytona.”
Barland Flisowski said success at nationals will come down to performance as much as it will experience, and how those two factors blend together on the year’s biggest stage.
“It’s very different on the junior college level because we have a small number of kids who have ever gone to nationals,” Barland Flisowski stated. “Those kids who have been there, who know what it’s like, who know the stress of going from practices, to performing, to changing outfits, and doing something completely different in a short amount of time … that sophomore leadership is going to carry us this year. We’re proud of all 15 of them and what they’ve brought to these programs this year, and I don’t think people are ready for what we’re going to put out on the floor in Daytona.”
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 42 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
