Faribault coach Lois Krinke said she felt the Emeralds were “robbed” of their moment to bask in the glory of a state championship on Saturday.
The Faribault Emeralds dance team’s title-winning celebration on Saturday at Target Center was largely overshadowed by five other Class AAA teams that joined together during the awards ceremony in an apparent protest of the Emeralds’ routine, which has drawn accusations of plagiarism.
The Emeralds celebrated without protest on Tuesday.
The Emeralds were recognized at a pep rally at the end of the school day inside Faribault High School’s Nomeland Gymnasium. When they entered the gym, the Emeralds drew a standing ovation from the students, teachers, staff and family members who sat on the bleachers of the gymnasium.
“It’s the first time I’ve got tears since the thing happened,” Krinke said, “because I feel we were so robbed of this kind of moment. I don’t care about myself, but I know how hard these girls worked. Four-hour practices every day through Christmas break. After everything is said and done, the girls had to perform that dance.”
The pep rally comes two days after the Minnesota State High School League issued a statement saying it will investigate the events of the Class AAA State High Kick Championships awards ceremony.
During the ceremony, Wayzata, Eastview, Lakeville South, Eden Prairie and Chaska moved together and refused to return to their assigned spaces on the court after two prompts from the public address announcer. As a result, neither runner-up Wayzata or third-place Eastview received their medals.
Faribault, which stood alone on the other side of the court, was the only team to receive an award. The Emeralds won the competition regardless of the apparent protest with a ranking score of five points.
The events unfolded after the MSHSL cleared the Emeralds of an alleged rule violation last week. The Emeralds were accused of stealing an alien-themed dance from the Copper Hills Azurettes, a high school drill team in Utah. Krinke has said the Emeralds used two non-consecutive four-count moves from the Azurettes’ routine but has maintained there are significant differences between the two dances.
“This has made us stronger as a team,” said senior Kristin Johnson. “This has made us so much closer and stronger and made us realize how much we do appreciate dance.
“We don’t dance to win, we don’t. We dance because we love it, and that love and passion, personally for me, was taken away on Saturday.”
Minnesota Timberwolves announcer Rod Johnson was a guest announcer at the pep rally, which included a video of the Emeralds’ performance at state, music from the FHS Band and the Faribault Concert Choir’s rendition of Queen’s “We Are The Champions.”
The Emeralds also were individually awarded their medals and celebrated with their championship trophy — complete with confetti — in front of the school.
“We went there to perform our best and to do the best we could, and we did obviously,” senior captain Johanna Villa said. “It doesn’t matter to us if they get their medals or not because they made those choices, but we’re happy that we got this medal because we earned it and we spent the whole season earning it.”
Villa also said she preferred Tuesday’s pep rally over celebrating on the Target Center court, despite it coming several days afterward.
“… With this event, we’ve kind of been able to hang onto our team and our season just even for a day longer,” she said. “And it’s so nice to do that, so I think it’s even better than your regular celebration at state.”
Toward the end of the pep rally, Faribault’s five senior captains stepped to the microphone, and Johnson read a message to the crowd that included a thank-you to classmates, coaches, parents, supporters and others.
“Our final chapter in seasonal dance did not end how we pictured,” Johnson told the crowd. “But guess what? We are state champs and we are blessed to have led this team to victory.”
Closure, however, likely won’t come until the MSHSL releases the results of its investigation, Krinke said.
“But this certainly does put closure on the girls getting their recognition they so deserved,” she said.