Gatorline, Xavier’s non-competitive dance team, not to be confused with Spiritline, cheers for both Xavier and Brophy basketball home and playoff games, as well as Xavier volleyball home and playoff games.
The team has created a close friendship, spending every Monday and Wednesday together at morning practices as well as bonding outside of practice.
“These girls are amazing. They work hard, they are always happy to be there, they are so kind. They are just so fun to coach,” said Stephanie Sassaman, Gatorline head coach.
Various team traditions have arisen over the past years like pregame lunches and dinners, getting ready together before games, the annual basketball camp where the girls spend the night together and learn new cheers, and the Christmas dance.
While the team carries on these traditions, they also have made many new changes and innovations.
This year the team consists of 18 girls, as opposed to last year that had 11, and it includes three new seniors. The team performs eight dances total, seven of which are completely new this year, the eighth being the annual Christmas dance. They also had new guest dance teachers from the Suns team come in to teach them new techniques.
Additionally, this is the first year that Gatorline was invited to the Catholic Schools Rally, hosted by Saint Simon and Jude on Thursday, January 30.
According to captains Elyse Tseffos’25 and Carina Ferrigno’25, the girls went over their dances in practice and adjusted their cheers to fit the theme of Catholic schools, instead of the typical Brophy/Xavier chants, in order to prepare for this event.
The Gators are looking forward to wrapping up the season strong with two more home basketball games: Brophy versus Sunnyslope on Friday, February 7 and Brophy versus Millennium on Wednesday, February 12. They then will head into cheering for the playoff games.
