Almost every student at Oak Park High School is involved on campus in some way. Some students join ten clubs. Some help create the Yearbook. And some are on two sports teams–at the exact same time. Such is the case with senior Acacia Camacho, who’s a member of both the varsity cheer and dance teams. 

Hip-hop, jazz, ballet, contemporary, tap– Camacho does it all, and in sixth grade, she began dancing competitively. For her, dance is both a distraction from life’s worries and a way to feel more comfortable with other people. Still, too much of a good thing exists, and by the time freshman year rolled around, a change felt necessary. Prompted by her mom to try a new sport, Camacho made the spur-of-the-moment decision to try out cheer.

“I knew a lot of the girls trying out for cheer, so I just was like, ‘I’ll give it a try’ but I wasn’t really interested in it that much,” Camacho said. “But I ended up really enjoying [cheer]! Everyone on the team and the coaches are the best, and it’s just the best dynamic. We all get along really well and I feel like we just kind of bond a lot on the team.”

Outside of school, Camacho was still spending anywhere from 3-5 hours per day at dance. Still, managing academics, dance and the cheer team was a large commitment for Camacho, which is why she decided to take a break from competing her junior year. 

“I felt like I was getting burnt out and I wasn’t as into it,” Camacho said. “I signed up for harder classes, and I wanted to make more memories instead of just focusing on dance.”

Within the past year, Camacho began to feel the absence of dance in her life, and when she found out that the OPHS dance team had begun competing, it seemed like a good opportunity to ease back into it without putting too much on herself. 

“Throughout the last year, I was missing [dance] a lot, so I wanted to get back into dancing,” Camacho said. “And it seemed like a really good opportunity to do dance team, because now they’re competing. So I was like, oh, this would be a good way to ease back into it without putting too much on myself.”

Of course, being on two sports teams dually came with a whole host of new challenges.

“At first, I kind of thought it would be less challenging, but it’s actually more of a challenge, especially because dance and cheer are a big part of the football games and rallies,” Camacho said. “I’ve had to coordinate with both of the coaches and the athletic department about how I should go about that because obviously both of the teams perform at halftime or at the rallies. But thankfully, both of those schedules don’t really conflict too much.”

Gallery • 2 Photos

(Photo by Max Steinberg)

During rally practice, Camacho stays in her cheer uniform, as they'll be perfoming first.

Halftime’s when Camacho is at her best. Blink and you’ll miss her Hannah Montana-esque transition from varsity whites and a bow to a black dance jersey and a bandana. On the field, she smiles and hits every beat with ease, but in the bleachers, stress is inevitable.

“[Gameday] can definitely be stressful from having to learn all that material and learn where I’m supposed to be, or sometimes there’s things that happen and we have to make last minute changes in routines,” Camacho said. “But I really love all my teammates and everyone is just so supportive and so helpful. But in the moment I’m just like, whatever happens, like, happens. I try not to stress out about it too much because it’s like, it’s just a halftime. It’s not that big of a deal if I make a mistake, so I don’t dwell on it– it doesn’t make or break me.”