Valencia High School’s varsity dance team is celebrating a month of winning, including becoming West Coast Elite Dance National’s grand champions for the first time in the high school’s history.
Placing first in four categories during the WCE Nationals, which took place from March 14 to 16 in the Long Beach Convention Center Arena, as well as winning Sweepstakes in the jazz and lyrical categories, Valencia is showing no signs of slowing down this season.
Valencia coach Andrew Allan reflected on the accomplishment after his sixth year as the head coach.
“There were 100-plus teams there, over 900 routines. They have a regional season throughout the year that teams from all over California go to, some from out of state, like Texas, go to these competitions,” Allan said. “But what was special about this one was we won National Grand champions, which basically means our average score was the highest out of the whole entire competition, and it’s the first time that Valencia High School has ever won West Coast Elite National Grand Champions.”
Even though Allan is no stranger to having his team win singular national titles, he takes pride in winning the whole competition this year with the 20 girls on the dance team.
“Three of our routines were in the top 10 overall highest scoring routines of the whole weekend, and then National Grand Champions came about because of how well we did throughout the weekend,” Allan said. “I think for me, as a coach, it’s been a couple of hard years in the making [since I was] learning to navigate the pandemic. It feels extra special this year knowing that Valencia and the rest of the world went through a lot, and as a coach the persistence paid off. It feels good.”
Allan credits the team for their talent, time and trust in order to achieve an incredible feat.
“I think this year, my team, from a talent perspective, is the strongest that I’ve ever gotten to coach collectively. Talent aside, I think their dedication to the work they’ve put in and trusting me and each other took them all the way to the top,” Allan said. “We had ups and downs, like any program does, but we reminded ourselves of the goals … and we carried that throughout the months.”
