Oak Park High School athletics are back for the fourth time to participate in their annual Showdown performance, an annual fundraiser for OPHS sports teams. Over the past month, students have been hard at work preparing for the competition taking place this Saturday Nov. 15 at 6 p.m.
After finishing in third place last year, OPHS Water Polo and Swim is back and ready to win this year.
“We started choreographing two months before Showdown and we started planning choreography right,” freshman dance team member Vivienne Torres said. “Then we started practicing maybe a month before.”
When deciding the theme of their performance, the dance leads decided to go with a routine inspired by Bruno Mars.
“The theme we decided to do for showdown was Bruno Mars because he has a lot of good, upbeat songs, and we thought that it would be easy to choreograph a simple, easy hip-hop dance, and we thought everybody would like it,” Torres said.
As Showdown day comes closer, the team has gotten much more confident and are excited to perform their dance.
“I think it’s going really well,” junior and swim team member Sophia Loteria said. “We’ve had two choreography practices in one stunt practice, and we have two more practices this week, so I think we’re pretty well prepared. I like it, I think it’s really fun! I love the choreography and the stunts are the same as last year, so I’m more comfortable doing them now.”
Planning time to practice for such a large event does present athletes with a new set of challenges.
“I think the most difficult part about Showdown is that everyone wouldn’t show up on time because there are probably like 14 people in our group,” Torres wrote. “Every single time we would have practice, only like eight people would show up or five people, so I think that was like the hardest part of Showdown. Also people having too many conflicts.”
Although the team has faced difficulties coordinating practices, the event has served as a positive way to meet new people and grow the community within OPHS.
“To me, the best part about showdown practice was getting to know each other and teaching them the choreography was pretty fun, and everyone was really nice,” Torres said.
As for Loteria, not only is she excited to show off her stunt skills, but also to put on a performance to be proud of.
“I’m really the most proud of my stunt team. We’ve worked pretty hard, and it looks really clean, so I’m excited to see that.”
