On February 29, 2020, the Farmington Knightline took on their greatest challenge of the season, performing at a state-level competition in Kansas City at the Hy-vee arena. There were roughly 200 teams in various divisions attending the competition. These girls worked hard all season for their chance to perform at the state level. They persevered through tremendous tribulations including various injuries, over eleven-hundred hours of practice, weightlifting as well as moring practices, and most devastatingly the passing of one of their coaches, Jane Bates. Sophomore, Alyssa Howard states “ It was very difficult for us because she was our biggest fan. She was the one person that believed in us even when no one else did. She is THE person that loved us.”

These girls dedicated their performances at state to their beloved coach and they won first place in their mix routine in the 4A division, 4th place in their lyrical dance, and won a composite score making them 5th in the state. Senior, Melissa Miller, also won first place in the senior category for solos throughout the state beating out 44 other seniors’ routines. Upon interviewing Junior Knightline member Emma Crites about the recent win she states “ I think one of the biggest reasons we worked so hard was because of Jane. She told us at the beginning of the year that we could take it all, we could do it, we could win state so we decided we had to do this for Jane.”

These girls have persevered through unimaginable odds and showed with a lot of hard work and perseverance you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Sophomore, Alyssa Howard states “ We put everything into our lyrical routine so much so that when we were done performing we all came off of that floor crying and screaming, and for once we actually made our coaches cry with our routine. We have never performed our routine like we did that day.”