By Travis Rosenau

trosenau@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — No matter how small the team may be in numbers this season, the New Ulm Eagles varsity dance team isn’t letting that bring down their effort or creativity for the 2025-26 dance season.

Head coach Bridget Gusso returns for the Eagles with six years of coaching under her belt. She said while lower numbers have led to some extra challenges, it hasn’t been anything the team hasn’t been able to solve so far.

“Our biggest change from last year is definitely the size of our team,” she said. “We have a smaller team this season, with everyone competing at the varsity level. This has made formations and using the full floor a bit more challenging, but as a team we’ve been very creative in finding new ways to make it work. The smaller numbers have also allowed us to become a more close-knit and connected team, which has actually been really great.”

Gusso said her tight-knit group of dancers will work to become stronger, better and more unified as a team this season, all while building connection, supporting one another and having fun.

The team has two key songs they will compete to this year.

“We will be competing in high kick to the song, ‘HandClap’ by Fitz and the Tantrums, and our jazz routine will use a remix of ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears,” Gusso said.

With a smaller team and several strong dancers, Gusso said it’s hard to pick out just a few leaders this season but lone senior Ty’lee Haefner-Richardson has played a key role.

“Ty’lee is our only senior, and he is our captain this year,” Gusso said. “He has been a great role model — really putting in the work, always giving his all and running routines full-out at practices.”

“Honestly, I feel like the whole team has really taken charge and stepped up. Everyone has done such a great job being encouraging and supportive of one another. I think they have all been great role models for each other.”

The Eagles’ competitive dance season began with an invitational at Glencoe-Silver Lake High School and will continue at 6 p.m. on Dec. 18 at New Ulm Cathedral High School in another invite. The Eagles then trek to Belle Plaine for an 8 p.m. Dec. 20 invite and are at the Big South Conference Championship at Tri-City United High School at 6 p.m. Jan. 8. The Eagles host an invite at 6 p.m. on Jan. 13, travel back to TCU for a 4 p.m. invite on Jan. 30 and have the section tournament scheduled for 10 a.m. on Feb. 7 at Mound Westonka.