On Friday, April 26, the Rosettes held officer auditions for the 2013-2014 team. There were nine officer spots with fifteen candidates auditioning, including Captain and First Lieutenant positions. This year’s Rosette officers are Bri Polischeck, Rachel Horikami, Kaleigh Tower, Brooke Rose, Megan Shepler, Natalee Riepenhoff and Kristen Paege. The Captain is Lexi Colavecchia and the First Lieutenant is Madeline West.

“I am so blessed to be the Captain of such a great team. These girls are my family and I hope I can serve them to the best of my abilities,” Colavecchia said. “I’m also so proud of the girls who tried out but didn’t make it. It takes a lot of courage just to put yourself through the process.”

Tryouts consist of the candidates showing an original solo, a jazz, a contemporary, a kick and a hip-hop routine, along with kicks across the floor, strut, splits and an interview with the panel of judges. The girls also had to answer a series of questions of written questions and compile it into a scrapbook, teach the team a section of their solos and perform all the tryout material in front of the team, where the team votes after all the candidates have performed.

“Voting on next year’s officers is a huge deal,” Riepenhoff said. “The judges take the team vote into huge consideration and won’t appoint anyone girl officer if there are no votes for that girl.”

As the team “kicks” off a new year, the Rosette officers are hard at work, shaping the new team to fit FMHS’s reputation of excellency.