MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota Dance Team is the most decorated program in Gophers athletics, with 22 national championships since 2003.
One of the secrets of their success is a technical staff composed entirely of former team members.
This is Amanda Gaines’ 13th season as head coach. She led the team to dozens of national championships in recent years. And before that, she was on the teams they earned from 2005 to 2009.
“I think the traditions mean so much to us because we’ve lived and breathed them on both sides,” Gaines said.
It’s part of what drives the success of this program, and Gaines’ coaching counterparts are part of the legacy, too.
Tia Tumbleson danced on the team in her fourth season as an assistant coach from 2015 to 2019.
“We do it for the relationships,” Tumbleson said. “Being able to coach them and be a resource to them, and just be people in their lives is just one of the best things.”
New this year is that they have added a third coach to their staff: Lauren Busyn. She knows these dancers on a deeper level because she was their teammate last season.
“I could use my voice when I was on the team, but now I can have a little more input,” Busyn said.
Busyn was on the ground at the time the team went viral at last year’s national championships.
“The team felt so connected and so united that, beyond the results, we kind of knew we had something special,” Busyn said.
“I think it put dance more on the map,” Tumbleson said.
People across the country fell in love with the team and their social media pages blew up.
“We run our team account, like we run it, and we’re the second most followed account behind football,” Gaines said.
But after all the attention, they want to make sure it doesn’t distract them from their real goal. This year’s team motto is ‘heart before hype’.
“If the hype comes back, if, you know, TikTok blows up, if people pay attention to nationals, that’s great,” Gaines said. “But at the end of the day, it’s about doing this because we love it, not because the hype is guaranteed.”
They enter this season knowing they have to earn that attention all over again.
“No matter what the expectations are, like we have to look at it every year as a fresh start,” Gaines said.
This weekend, WCCO’s Marielle Mohs is in Orlando, Florida, providing exclusive coverage of the national college dance teams. Listen to her reports and see the unveiling of a new women’s basketball competition from Friday.