Oneonta State Kickline Cheers on O-State's Basketball Teams at the Battle of the Red Dragons

by Brittany Rohrssen --Oneonta, NY

Fans filled the stands at the men's game. Brittany Rohrssen (c) 2016

The stands were packed with over 2000 cheering fans on Tuesday, February 9th for the much anticipated Battle of the Red Dragons between the SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Cortland men's and women's basketball teams. Stands were filled with students, faculty, town members and many fellow O-State sports teams. Among the teams in attendance was the Oneonta State Kickline. The OSK attended both the women's game at 5:30pm and the men's game at 7:30pm. They debuted their new routine to the song Roses by the Chainsmokers during halftime at the men's game.

With the score before halftime being 21 O-State, 25 Cortland, OSK was eager to give a show stopping performance to get the crowd pumped up for the second half to encourage the boys to keep playing hard. Along with Kickline, Oneonta's Drumline, Oneonta State Dance Team, and the Oneonta State Cheerleaders also gave memorable performances during halftime.

Kick Sequence during half time. Brittany Rohrssen (c) 2016

I spoke to OSK sophmore, Kennedi Rabideau, about the teams association with O-State basketball games. She commented, "kicklines been performing at halftime at the mens basketball games for years, we just started sitting in the stands for the duration of all their games, we also perform at soccer games in the fall." They also occasionally perform during halftime at the women's basketball games. The kickline team is headed by three captains: Tabitha McGill, sophmore, Lindsey Kendrick, senior, and Heather Miller, senior. I got the chance to speak to Tabitha before their performance where she told me about how they prepare for games and all about their new routine. She stated, "we were established in 2007. The new routine is very high energy; we wanted a lot of eye-appealing formations to draw the audiences attention. We think of our audience a lot when choreographing routines, we want to show off the teams best features." And that they did; the crowd went wild when to girls took the floor. The team was successful in their effort of providing an entertaining performance for their audience. 

A few of the girls cheering on the men's team. Brittany Rohrssen. (c) 2016.

The team is very close, with members ranging from freshmen to seniors. Melanie Rosenberg, freshman team member, comments, "I joined kickline because I wanted the same environment that I had at my dance studio at home and that’s exactly what I got with the Oneonta State Kickline, I love it, the hard work we put in really pays off when I hear the audience cheering us on during our performances.” The team practices every Tuesday and Thursday from 7-9pm. If you are interested in auditioning for the team and joining the ranks of some of the best dancers on campus, they hold auditions every fall and occasionally in the spring. 

For any further inquiries on the team, you can go to Ostatekickline.wix.com/home.