The Civic Memorial Pazzazz dance team poses before the boys’ basketball game between CM and Highland on Feb. 19. Pictured are (front row, from left) Trinity and Brittain Davis (back row) Mackenzie Williams, Emily Zimmerman, Kaitlyn Depping, Braylen Cox and Maggie White.
Calvin Soong and Craig Wilson couldn’t have asked for a better way to end their 25-year tenure as coaches of the Civic Memorial Pazzazz dance team.
The dance squad from Civic Memorial High School qualified for state and competed in nationals in a span of two weeks. Pazzazz clinched a state berth by finishing second in the Class 1A-2 Mascoutah Sectional on Jan. 19, then competed in the Dance Team Union Nationals on Feb. 1-3 in Orlando, Fla., and finished 13th in the pom small varsity division.
“We’re just excited that we got to end on a high note,” Soong said. “Being able to compete on a national level has been one of our biggest aspirations. We want to compete not just in the state, but to be able to represent our school and our town nationally.”
Soong and Wilson plan to retire as Pazzazz coaches after the school year. They were recognized at halftime of Civic Memorial’s home boys basketball game against Highland on Feb. 19 and received a plaque.
“It’s time to make the next chapter of our lives,” Wilson said.
Soong and Wilson took over the Pazzazz program in 1994.
“I graduated from CM in 1987 and my sister was on the team and they needed a choreographer, and so I came in as choreographer after high school from 1987 to 1991,” Wilson said. “I kind of helped a coach in 1993, officially. Then I met Calvin in 1994, and he became a coach by default. Then we actually passed the torch from the people who started the team a few years later and here we are 25 years later that we’ve been in the business.”
This year, Soong and Wilson coached a team that included Braylen Cox, sisters Brittain and Trinity Davis, Kaitlyn Depping, Maggie White, Mackenzie Williams and Emily Zimmerman.
“They were really something to me,” Zimmerman said of the coaches. “They really showed me how to be a better person, especially in the ways of dancing. They made me such a better dancer, and I’m going to miss them so much.”
Depping, the only senior, was a member of Pazzazz all four years. She said Soong and Wilson influenced her to start dancing when she was in junior high.
“I used to be a figure skater and I came to a competition here at Civic when I was in sixth or seventh grade,” Depping said. “Calvin and Craig were encouraging me to dance because they said since I’m a figure skater, I have a very strong core and I’ll be able to be like a turner and stuff.”
Soong and Wilson helped turn Pazzazz into a state powerhouse during their 25-year coaching tenures. The dance team qualified for state five times in the last seven years and had a second-place state finish in 2013.
Soong said even though he and Wilson are retiring, Pazzazz will still be successful in the future.
“The team will be fine without us,” he said. “We’re just coaches at the end of the day. The new coaches will do very well. We’re excited to watch them move forward.”
State berths
- 2013
- 2014
- 2017
- 2018
- 2019
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The Civic Memorial Pazzazz dance team poses during the Dance Team Union Nationals on Feb. 1-3 at Orlando, Fla. Coaches Craig Wilson and Calvin Soong are retiring at the end of this school year.