Pilot Point restarts dance team
For the first time in decades Pilot Point’s athletic program will include a drill team, with the Kick Cats making their return for the 2026-27 season.
Pilot Point’s drill team, which has a long history with the Bearcats athletic program, has been defunct since the late 1900s, but Pilot Point High School English teacher and dance coach Jenna Lawson saw a golden opportunity to restore the storied program.
“That was one of the things I noticed when I started working here in Pilot Point; they didn’t have a drill team, so I looked into starting one,” she said. “This is the second one I’ve started at a school, and I received overwhelming support from the administration in making it happen.”
The Kick Cats hosted tryouts in the spring and now feature a 15-member dance team, along with two equipment managers, who spent the summer training and preparing for the team's revival.
Kick Cats team captain Dulcy Alonso said Coach Lawson’s passion for the project inspired her to give it a try.
“[Mrs. Lawson] was my English teacher sophomore year, and she told me about it, but I wasn’t really convinced because all I’ve ever done was cheer, but she kept mentioning it until I finally went to tryouts, and it was so much fun,” she said. “When I went to try out and saw who was there, I felt like this was something I wanted to do.”
The excitement for the Kick Cats continued to spread and inspired even more athletes to try out, with some finding creative ways to audition for the team.
“ A few of us that are a part of the team also run track, and we had a track meet during tryouts, so we were under the bleachers in our track uniforms recording ourselves doing the routine so we could send it to Mrs. Lawson,” Kick Cats social president Joydin Course said.
In addition to teaching English, Lawson is also a certified dance and physical education instructor, which allows the Kick Cats members to earn a PE or Fine Arts credit for participating in the program and allows the team to practice at least five days a week.
“Our gym is currently not usable, so we’ve had to be creative with practices and find other places, like the library, and we have some practices in the afternoon at [Massey],” senior team member Kylee Owen said. “But we’ve learned a lot of routines for when we’re in the stands, on the field, and when we enter and exit the field.”
The enthusiasm for the Kick Cats' return has already extended beyond the high school, and team historian Khloe Segura said her family's reaction to the news helped give her the push to join the program.
“My mom was on the drill team when she was in high school, so when she found out that we were starting a drill team here, she wanted me to join,” she said. “She was so happy when I made the team, and she did whatever she could to help make it possible, so I’m looking forward to making her proud.”
The team’s 1st Lt. Peyton Lites said she hopes she and her teammates can build a new legacy at Pilot Point.
“A lot of kids have grown up seeing cheer and football, but we want them to be able to see that there are other options for them, so if one of those, cheer, football, or whatever, isn’t for them, this is another thing they can try,” she said.
Lawson also mentioned that she already has big plans for the Kick Cats.
“We won’t stop after football season,” she said. “We will be competing in February, and we’ll start the process for that, learning the choreography, around October, and in March we’ll have our tryouts for next year’s team.”
Kick Cats Sr. Lt. Amber Morris expressed the team’s appreciation for their coach and the Pilot Point administration and staff for helping make it all possible.
“We’re all involved in multiple things, and they help make those things as easy as possible for us and still make sure we're learning and passing in class; they just want the best for their students,” she said.
