It’s hard to get to the top and it’s a lot harder to stay on top because you have a target on your back. This team loves each other and they worked harder than any other team I’ve had in a while. – Bountiful drill coach Jan Whitaker
OREM — After a year of practicing and perfecting routines, every other high school drill team in Utah is still looking up at Bountiful and Copper Hills.
For Bountiful, Friday's championship marked the seventh-consecutive season Jan Whitaker’s Mandonelle’s have hoisted the title trophy. Meanwhile, Copper Hills coach Shannon Mortensen is working on a dynasty of her own as her team captured its third-straight state title.
Like it did a year ago, Bountiful swept all three categories (military, dance and kick) in Friday’s championships held at the UCCU Center. While the win might not be a surprise, there was a point in the season where Whitaker looked around and saw a lot of wide-eyed faces.
“We had 21 rookies this season, so the main thing is they were scared to perhaps not live up to the legacy at the start of the year,” Whitaker said.
The Braves wrapped up Friday’s competition in the kick portion of the event, where Whitaker and her girls kicked their way past the competition with a military routine that featured chants, Boy Scouts uniforms, and a perfectly executed routine.
“With all of the new faces, it was pretty scary when we first started,” Brianna Buchanan said.
Originally, Whittaker planned to do the kick routine with the girls wearing stiletto heels. While that degree-of-difficulty move didn’t happen, it was the same old Bountiful recipe of hard work and dedication that put the Braves on top.
“It’s hard to get to the top and it’s a lot harder to stay on top because you have a target on your back,” Whitaker said. “This team loves each other and they worked harder than any other team I’ve had in a while.”
Maple Mountain had another strong outing in the state event, repeating a second-place finish from a year ago.
Meanwhile, for the third-consecutive year Copper Hills coach Shannon Mortensen will be adding a state championship trophy to her school’s ever-growing trophy case.
While the title was earned with hard work and dedication, the dream of the three-peat was nearly derailed in the early part of the season.
“We had some girls quit early on and we had to regroup and push through that, but because of that adversity, I think we grew closer as a team,” Shannon Mortensen said.
While Copper Hills didn’t make it a clean sweep in the individual competitions, the Grizzlies finished second to Bingham in the military discipline and did garner top honors in the dance and kick competitions.
“This team just showed so much heart and love this year,” Mortensen said.
Mortensen said part of the key to the success of the program is doing something different from other teams to keep things fresh and exciting for her team.
Bingham finished second on the strength of its conquest of the military category.
Herriman finished third under the direction of third-year coach Ariel Larsen.