VYPE San Marcos CISD October 2022

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\\ By Ma t t Ma l a t e s t a K N I G H T H A S B U I LT D I AMO N D L I N E I N T O E L I T E P R O G R AM DIAMOND DYNASTY

check their egos at the door. “Chemistry is my No. 1 thing,” Knight said. “If you can’ t be friends and bond with each other, you can’ t dance with each other. It shows up on the dance floor. It ’s so hard to empower young women these days with everything going on. Instead of being jealous of one another, we hype each other up from compliment circles at the end of class to team dinners. We are a team, and no one is bigger than the team.” The reason Knight is passionate about her group of young ladies is that she was once in their shoes, walking the halls of San Marcos High as a student . Knight went on to Texas Woman’s University and then launched the middle school dance programs within the district . “I want all of my girls to know that they are ‘enough’,” she said. “I want them to be life-long learners and great members of society. They are wor thy of anything they work for. I want them to learn time management , responsibility and discipline. Most impor tantly, to encourage other women to get great , be a great teammate and friend.” Sounds like a winning formula to me.

THE DIAMOND LINE AT SAN MARCOS HIGH SCHOOL COULD BE THE MOST DECORATED EXTRA CURRICULAR PROGRAM INSIDE OF RATTLER NATION. Michelle Knight has been directing one of the state’s most elite drill teams since 2007 and has the hardware to back up the Diamond Line’s prowess – 14 State Titles and 1 National Championship. “We really built this thing from the ground up,” Knight said. “It has been amazing to watch the success of the program over the years. Like an athletic team, we just work every day on refining our technique. We are known as a precision dance team, so we are striving for per fect precision all the time. The routine hours of the rehearsal… the again, again, again and again… is what makes us so successful.” As the banners fill the dance room, it ’s the memories and development that keeps Knight pushing for excellence. “ The banners are impor tant , just like a State ring for a football coach,” she said. “It ’s what we are all coveting, right? But my favorite thing is to watch a team grow from the beginning of the year, take something that is a mess and make it into a per fect finished product . “It makes everyone in the program go wild.” Even with all the titles, the Diamond Line dancers must

[Back Row]: Andrea Contreras, Alexia Banda, Kelly Torres and Lola Medrano; [Front Row]: Yadira Castro, Lexi Carpenter, Sofia White, Matti Wingard, Eva Moore and Brooke Dutchover

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