Last Thursday, Hyline arrived at Burger Stadium for the varsity football game against Akins. They set up to do “victory lines” and be right next to the Chaps as they ran out from behind the banner and onto the field.

Since the beginning of Chaps football in 1969, Hyline, the premier drill team has performed at varsity football games for students and fans across the country and sometimes out of the country too.

Now in their 56th year, 38 girls perform at Chaps varsity football games, pep rallies and in various competitions across the country.

Hyline always prepares their dances a few weeks ahead so that when the football game or the pep rally comes, they are well prepared and the dance is already cleaned, a process that refines and polishes the choreography.

“We are always operating a few weeks ahead,” Hyline Director Lindsay Joe said. “It takes about a week to polish or clean a football dance and then it takes additional practices to put it on the football field and ‘get yard lines.’”

When it comes time to get ready for the game, it’s important that the whole squad looks uniform and ready to perform.

“In inspection, we go through everything in our uniform,” Senior First Lieutenant Julia Villareal said. “We just make sure that everyone has their stuff like your streamers, your water, your belt string, it’s the whole thing.”

Varsity football games are the main focus in the fall and winter, but when January rolls around, the team starts focusing on its spring competitions. In order to prepare for those, they have two Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. rehearsals in January.

“It takes a lot longer to clean our contest dances,” Villareal said. “Football dances are choreographed to be very specific…once we get into contest season, everything’s a little bit more muddled, just because it’s not so placed…it’s more like competing against other teams.”

As the team cleans dances in weeks before, the officers take on big roles to help get the rest of the squad ready for contests and game days.

“Most of the practice is led by us,” Villarreal said. “We clean all of our dances ourselves.” 

With Joe adding that “it’s a hard job to clean a dance” especially because “[the officers] have to know the counts precisely.”

When a younger girl has questions about a routine, the officers are the first ones they turn to.

“We have tutorials in the mornings before practice,” Villareal said. “You take your own initiative to be helping the girls of your company.”

That initiative is what is looked for as the directors pick new officers every year, a role that takes a lot of time and dedication.

“[We look for] someone that cares about the best interest of the team as a whole instead of themselves,” Joe said. “[Also someone who is] reliable…[and] has the respect of the team.”

Another aspect that is present in Hyline is the teamwork it takes to run the team full of very different people.

“[You have to] learn to work with a lot of different people,” Villarreal said. “[You work] with all kinds of different people and everybody’s personalities.”

The quality of teamwork continues to impact and shape these girls’ lives as they go to college and grow into adults in the real world.

“We always say that the skills our students learn from our department are going to help them be individuals ready to impact the world,” Joe said. “Drill team teaches discipline and respect. It teaches you how to be responsible for yourself and to plan ahead. It teaches you to have excellent time management skills and an incredible work ethic. It teaches you how to be there for your teammates and how to encourage them.”