Watch out Ganado and Jackson County: the Arrowettes drill team is coming to the new 2026-27 school year, with Alexis Vickery as their coach and fearless leader.
This is a first for Ganado High School, and Vickery, a fifth grade science and social studies teacher, is in her first year at Ganado but her fifth year in education. She has a huge dancing background, was a Silver Spur for four years in high school before she graduated in 2013, and experienced dancing at a studio in Victoria and Edna, with none other than Lisa Porche, before she retired.
“I loved dancing so much I told myself I wanted to pursue it when I got older,” Vickery said. “When I started working as a teacher, I thought it would be fun to coach a drill team as well. There’s the fear that they don’t know how to dance, but I have enough experience to help them grow.”
So she had a chat with the superintendent and the high school principal about bringing the program to Ganado, and they were into the idea of giving another option for the high schoolers.
The idea was brought to the board, and on December 19 of last year, they immediately approved it.
“That was a great day,” Vickery said.
“They said, ‘we want this.’” No auditions were held for the first year, because Vickery didn’t want to scare anyone away from the dance team. All she needed was the willingness to try, and the student’s ability to pay the financial means. Briley Clark, who will be a senior for the upcoming school year, is going to be a co-captain and doesn’t have a background in dancing.
She said she wasn’t interested at first, until she learned one of her friends joined the team.
“It’s been fun so far, and we’ve been learning turns and other basic moves. I like that we’re doing everything together as a team and learning as a team,” she said. “I honestly never thought I would be on a dance team, and an officer as well.”
The all-girl Arrowettes is composed of 19 dancers and two managers.
Of those 19, five girls are officers: a captain, two co-captains and two lieutenants. They will be performing during pep rallies, football games, and at halftime. Plus, they’ll also be competing once in the spring season, with team dances and officer dances, plus a spring show to show the public what they’ve learned.
“They’re starting to pick up on how things are done and for some of them, it’s starting to click,” Vickery said.
Leslie Guerrero, who will also be a senior for the upcoming school year, doesn’t have any background in dancing.
She always wanted to be involved in something at school, but cheerleading wasn’t quite her thing.
“I joined the team because it looked cute and I think it will be fun to meet people and get to learn something new,” Guerrero said. “I’m excited to see where it’s going to go and I know it’s going to be a fun year.”
Both girls said they’re looking to make amazing memories with the team, and they hope to do well enough to encourage others to want to join and make the team larger in the future. If anyone saw the Facebook post announcing the arrival of the team, the outfit the AI-generated student was wearing will look very similar to what Vickery is hoping the team uniforms will look like.
Naturally, the Arrowettes would appreciate donations to make their first year unforgettable, and Vickery is looking to make a sponsorship bracket available.
