The Pacesetter team has faced more than its fair share of challenges, not just from competition, but from the constant shuffle of new coaches. Having new coaches comes with different vision, strategy and set of expectations, leaving the team to adapt while maintaining their performance.

“This goes for both of us,” senior Katie Hull and senior Miranda Zimmerman said. “But for singular coaches, we have had four, but I think in total, eight.”

For Hull, Zimmerman, and other seniors on Pace, those eight coaches spanned four years. Coach Long, coach Danielle, coach Balligan, coach Carson, coach Hailey, coach Joy, and for 24-25, coach Erinn and coach Riley.

“It’s definitely an experience,” senior Anne Hance said. “And given that each, each of our three kind of like sets of coaches are just like, they’re very different in how they run the teams and just kind of like their background, like as a dancer, slash, just like a teacher versus like a coach are different than it just gives us different experiences being on the team each year.”

Frequent coaching changes can disrupt team dynamics, yet the pacesetters work hard to adapt.

“I mean, it is hard having new coaches every year,” Zimmerman said. “But it does, I think, help with experiencing change.”

Adjusting to changes within a group can be challenging, especially when new coaches bring a different viewpoint to the team. The mix of different perspectives is what strengthens the team and opens doors for diverse input.

“There’s always a bit of an adjustment period,” Hull said. “But once we get through that, I think, in a way, it is nice, because we have so many different perspectives and different ways to look at things, is kind of what we’ve been taught.”

For a lot of students, senior year is a time to take on leadership roles they’ve worked towards over their high school years. But with recent coach changes on the team, some of those aspirations have been reshaped, creating mixed emotions and unexpected growth.

“It’s been tough,” senior Molly McCracken said. “Especially coming in as a senior, I was really looking forward to having the opportunity to be able to audition to be a captain, but that position got taken away with new coaches… And that was kind of hard to deal with, because i’ve been looking forward to it since my freshman year on pace, I’d say, in terms of other changes, with the lack of captains, it has led us to kind of all become more responsible, and all help each other out and, rely on each other, rather than just putting the whole workload of a captain position on a handful of people. Now, we’re all taking on some of that, or some of those duties and it’s been a lot more beneficial to like everybody’s growth.”

Though change can be intimidating for most, the pacesetters learned to overcome changes with coaches and different coaching styles. The team utilizes teamwork, working together to lead each other. No matter how frequent the coaching changes are, the pacesetters get to learn something new from new coaches, and use those skills to their advantage.