By Mary Whitfill

Features Editor

Everything good comes to an end, but as Dakota Fanning referenced in the 2003 box office hit Uptown Girls, “every ending is just a new beginning.” This rang true through the practice rooms of Coppell High School as Hailey Hoffman, the new director of the Silver Stars, is helping the team revamp and go in a completely new direction.

Photo by Lexus Deloach. New Silver Stars coach, Hailey Hoffman, directs the drill team on their new routine during a practice before a junior varsity footbal game.

Last year, the 2009-2010 Silver Stars director Ashley Lee left her post after the birth of her daughter. In to replace her came 25-year-old Hoffman, a Kilgore College Rangerette drill team alum.

“I’m very excited about directing the Silver Stars because it gives me the opportunity to teach girls who love to dance and love to perform like I do,” Hoffman said.

With a new director comes new changes and, according to last year’s Silver Stars who experienced the change first-hand, most of the changes were for the better of their performance.

“Ms. Hoffman worked us harder and took it more seriously,” sophomore and former Silver Star Madison Coleman said. “We improved a lot when she took over.”

Hoffman took the girls in a completely new direction, favoring traditional drill team moves over Lee’s modern and hip-hop twists. Hoffman’s main goal is to prepare the girls for the next step and a potential spot on the varsity drill team, the Lariettes.

“She got us more prepared to become Lariettes,” sophomore Katie Hall said. “So we didn’t really mind the sudden change and extra work.”

In addition to the dances, the atmosphere of the team has changed along with the leadership.

While Teen Leadership teacher Lee chose to do many sentimental and team-building activities with the girls, Hoffman cut out most of those activities in order to fit in more practice.

“With Mrs. Lee, we did activities were we had to tell other members what we liked about them and things like that,” Coleman said. “Ms. Hoffman didn’t want to spend time with that.”

Most of the members of the Silver Stars team use their freshman year to prepare to audition for the Lariettes, so the more drill team techniques they learn, the more valuable they consider their year to be.

The Silver Stars can be seen performign at various pep rallies throughout the school year and serve as the main halftime entertainment for the junior varsity home football games.

“I think my teaching strategies focus more on time management and not having any downtime,” Hoffman said. “I need the girls to look good when they perform at games because it is a reflection on me as a coach and them as a drill team.”

Video from Austin Evans coming soon!