The Tex Factor: Stomp Wars

Turn It Up Get It Right Turn It Up Turn It Up Turn It Up push it up iush it Up it’s called Wars right but the mentality is I’m better than you you’re better than me I’m here to prove it you have teams coming from like all over America five six in each category they’re going to come with all their jackets everyone’s going to look All Uniform it’s going to

Be all you know intimidating they’re not going to talk very much it’s called a social and nobody’s social all right you ready I want you to go straight to uh Cyclone right now Cyclone 5 6 7 go this not not winding all right just this alone 5 6 7

Go St still don’t move if your arms are flapping like this that’s not idea the main components number one just be true to yourself be true to your team and uh the things that work for you throughout the season be able to trust those things number two don’t be afraid to take risk

Uh the more risky teams are going to be a more memorable number one and then be they grow so if you continue to do the same thing over and over again you’re gonna be able to expect the same result our team has been stump Wars for

As long as stump Wars has been stom Wars so I think this is their 16th year we’ve been there 16 years consecutively some people start but some people here right yeah I need you here though that’s why I need you right I want to see where you

Are I’m the sponsor uh and and director and founder so started in like 2006 I’ve been here since uh my job and role is was at originally just to like teach a lot of content to kids and it became somewhat of a mentorship started off with like four boys uh they lost their

Sponsor and so I think they saw my license plate uh and I’m I’m a member of Alpha Fire Al for Fraternity Incorporated and so they automatically assumed that I would be a good sponsor for them I did step in college uh I did a lot of community service stuff so I

Just I I fulfilled a role and I think that’s what it was they needed somebody be able to provide some type of guidance and I said okay I’ll see what this looks like and um from there it end up becoming like a really long-term uh relationship right and so from 2006

Until now uh We’ve grown quite a bit 5 6 7 go stop so my role uh has become more of a mentor I’m a director I’m a teacher I’m a you know I’m a father some of the people who don’t necessarily have that father the figure you know if you need

To go to a T I don’t care I need to be sharp know Gary P that’s how you play defense always a friend uh but I’m always just try to be a source of inspiration and they inspire me too 5 6 7even go let’s go I started stepping 3 years ago my

Freshman year stepping has helped me build a little bit of my confidence I’ve gotten a little bit more friends been more open less shy and I’ve been able to travel more my favorite part about stepping is traveling uh I like going places I mean I’m much of an introvert

Cuz I like being at home I’ll be honest with you I love being at home but it’s it makes me more open now that I’m going places and now I’m going out of state and you know I’m over here just feeling A vibe of people we’ve been to

California we’ve been to Florida we’re going to New York next month some of these kids have never even seen outside of Garland Texas you know never been on an airplane before so like to be able to do that and to to get them to step outside of themselves is the is the main

Reason I’ve decided to do this 5 6 7 go white up relax it takes a lot of discipline to do with they do you know you have to you have to commit to long hours of practice you know uh you know beating on your craft and and doing type

Of things uh not only discipline but the structure you know being able to hey we have practice at this time from these two hours you need to be able to devote those things and not only that but multi- manage as well and be able to to uh you know be multi-functional uh you

Have classwork and you have to juggle that with home life and be able to juggle that with you know all these different you know responsibilities that you have as as a team we need to stay together in sync at all times there’s no messing up there’s no someone on a

Different pce we all have to be in sync and it requires a lot of teamwork to do that that’s why leadership does help probably leadership I’m not a captain but I feel like whenever something goes out of hand I say something and like I feel like I’ve gotten more confidence

This is my fourth year stepping before I started stepping I wasn’t really good at school I didn’t like keeping my grades up so it helped me keep my grades up uh it helped me stay away from like doing any of the bad things it taught me to

Like stay away from drugs stay away from other stuff like that and keep me in you know the right path if I got bad grade I ain’t going nowhere uh I ain’t going nowhere I can’t travel I can’t step on stage I can’t go to shows I can’t do

Anything until I get that grade up until the next 9 weeks which is a long time in order to go somewhere basically now that I have my jacket if he’s like if you’re feeling at any part even if it’s just a progress report or during at the moment I’ll snatching I’m

Like I don’t want my jacket snatch I want to keep it so I’m going to I’m going get my grades right if I did fell a class or did the drug thing um I would get for one get this taken off and then I’ll would be on probation I can’t step

They would take me out the show it’s just a big no no it keeps you on the right track but everyone has a role and everyone knows their role and everyone has to fulfill their role and it requires a lot of trust it requires a lot of uh know dedication and you just

Really have and reliability you have to be reliable let’s show them how we do it you have to trust each other no matter what because you have to have trust and faith in the person to do their job so I just trust myself as much as they trust me you know

It’s like a huge family so that’s main reason why I feel like when we step it just looks really good and we just in unison cuz we’re like all click at once this is my first really serious competition and I’m not nervous to perform on stage cuz I’ve been

Performing for so long but the competitiveness that will be around and the Very seriousness from all the teams this is stom fors just in case you havegot you’re an actor uh you’re a singer if you seing uh you’re definitely an athlete and then when you go to a

Step show you just think about what that is like you’re stepping true enough but you’re putting on a show you’re a performer and so it takes a lot of uh you know discipline in order to do those type of things so I think that this is

Our time and our place we haven’t won it since 2012 and then the first time we won it was in 2007 so we are two-time winners uh but at the same time it’s been you know it’s Spacey between those years but this is our Year 5 6 7 8 so today at practice we are preparing for stunt Wars uh competition on Saturday and just basically just getting the whole Precision The Showdown facials just the whole attitude basically this is one of the biggest competitions for them they are always excited about this

Competition every year because it’s the opportunity for them to compete against some different teams than the local teams that they normally compete against we are actually very excited going to stt Wars it is a blessing and also an honor to be even like invited to some Wars it’s just a big accomplishment to

Us we’ve actually been working no attitude no talking we’re just doing what we need to do we know how these teams are we’ve seen them last year and we know what we need to do in order to get ahead with them Precision the quality condition or fact of being exact and perfectly

I feel like we’re ready um I’m really ready for it I you know I’m already you know learning things from what they’re telling me from last year like stage is going to be hot breathe you know like little hints here and there to prepare me but also I don’t feel nervous at all

I trust my team I trust that we have everything together and right now we were just running everything all in all I feel like we’re very ready and I’m very ready honestly 5 4 3 2 1 okay it just gives me more extra curriculum to do and I feel like it

Teaches me to bond better with other people because cuz it’s other girls as my first year stepping my experience it has been really good um I’ve met a lot of people um lots of fun and very bonding step benefits the students because it keeps them out of trouble um we have a

Few girls on the team who were a little troublemakers um and they know that if they get in trouble or they have any type of disciplinary action they won’t be able to compete so they keep their nose clean and they stay you know disciplined so in ninth grade I was I

Got in a lot of trouble I was around a like totally bad friends I was failing and my mom was telling me like I need to get straight like I can’t keep on with if we’re going to take them on a mission we’ll need some artillery yo Agent K

Show these folks our weapons now I have straight A you know I do my work and I haven’t gotten in trouble at all like I don’t go to the principal’s office nothing I just stick by myself you know I should hear that your hands should be hurting okay so do it again

Five 6 6 5 6 7 8 this is a student L organization uh we have a captain co- captain and we have different positions leadership positions and they don’t have a coach they teach themselves the steps it’s really all about respect they earn their role to be leadership so you need

To listen to them regardless and at the end of the day they’re just trying to help you out um so I feel like them being a Sisterhood to us it makes us like we want to be that so like when the seniors that are in leadership this year

I want to step in be and be like them it’s preparing them for life um I always explain to them the importance of listening to leaders um and even though they’re their peers they’re still in a leadership position and they respect that position when we’re doing chance

When we’re saying things it needs to be like what’s up like everybody in the arena need to hear you it doesn’t matter their age if they’re telling me something I’m most likely going to do it because they know what they’re doing I have to be able to

Take what they’re saying and use it and just be able to put it in as needed and if I see that it’s not going right ask questions on the way it’s not anything personal it’s just to better our team and to just show us that even people that our own age can

Tell us anything cuz you can learn anything from anybody at any age woo all right I like the little loud one thing with step we do encourage them to continue their education in college all don’t go to college but this is preparing them for life um managing and

Directing teaching when I you know get out of high school to go to college um you’ll teach me a lot of patience I would say it would also help me with criticism again um cuz you know your boss is going to say things that you

Don’t like to hear but he’s your boss or she’s your boss and you have to just take what you have to hear and it would also just teach me to persevere through hard times cuz not all the time and stuff you’re going to win and not all

The time outside of life you’re going to win and you have to pursue through those things and you have to look at the bigger picture and the Brier side so I want to be a AKA and I want to go to TSU so I feel like me seeing that as

Leadership I’m already going to have a clear mindset of okay when I want to be a AKA I already know how to listen to instructions I know how to listen to people and have a clear understanding on what they’re trying to say how does contribut to life is basically working

With other people and make sure that you know you’re not going to always be on the same like game plan but you know how to work it out with one another life without stepping would be very dark I would say because oh I’m going to cry okay I’m not

Going to cry before I joined step I was very bullied and I didn’t have no friends or express myself to other people so step without step it just be I would say a very dark place for Me that’s why this program is so important because It prepares them for life and It prepares them for their future and for the roles that they’re going to have once they graduate and leave [Applause] school well this is my first stomp War but it’s very like nerve-wracking because you’re going to have people

Looking at you at different angles you have all these random cameras so it’s kind of like I don’t really know but I just have to shake that off and just be ready to perform amen happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday happy birthday

To it’s the arrival came in a leag went straight for the title no time to idle I’m F to get it put that on the Bible it’s a survival got to treat every Mo like the fin by no believe they all in look at me look at me at meing the show

That’s the cooking me they want me gone with the hooking me asking why is he here like I shouldn’t be I’ve been on grind since I 10,000 hours The this is the biggest youth step compet and movement in the entire world so we’re right now at the Curtis Coldwell Center in Garland Texas for the big national competition this is like the best step teams travel from all over the country to compete for bragging rights The Stomp Wars trophy we’re

Giving away over $100,000 of scholarships prize money and Community grants it gets pretty bananas up in here can I sayin out to win the competition you got to have heart determination perseverance you got to have grit grind you got to want to be the best if you want to be

The best you got to beat the best we in the building yes indeed indeed St Wars thank you guys for being here God bless all of you guys man this is 16 years can y’all believe that we’ve helped over 11,000 kids graduate high school through this youth stepping movement the scholarship piece to stomp Awards is is very important the reason

Why we offer that we got the prize money who wins the competitions but we also want to help the seniors that are graduating from these same competing step teams to help give them scholarships to go to college we’re going to go towards College because I still need more scholarships so I can

Get my books and everything and get everything that I need to get done for college then we got our amazing Divine n organization who’s donating to us as a partner to help these kids get to College as well we can’t do it it takes a village the Divine N is a collective

That has been around the majority of us for 100 years or more we know that our reach is over 2 and 1 half to 3 million individuals in our organizations and if we expand that to the communities that we touch we put that tfold we can impact 30 million people immediately we’re the

Second largest organization next to the black church and underrepresented populations so what that means is for the artist stepping we can really influence young people and give them inspiration to go to college so that they can officially join a sorority a fraternity across any of the nine in the Fraternal

And sorority World stepping is a big part of our culture right not only from our heritage uh from our ancestry but just a part of the culture of the organization I was on a step team when I was a kid when I was in high school uh

So I mean there wasn’t a stomp fors then but I I would have loved to have been a part of something like this but five Sigma recognized that we had to be a part of this for the Long Haul and investing in young people and what that

Will mean for their future I was a stepper from the time that I was in college because part of the D9 tradition is stepping stepping itself teaches a couple things number one it teaches discipline you have to be committed to a craft number two you also have to be a

Part of a team so when you think about collaboration listening follow and making sure that sometimes you can be the lead but other times you can be the followers in situations and then number three it teaches confidence because you have to be bold and committed to go out in front of millions

Of people sometime and be able to perform at a high level it’s an opportunity to actually provide additional Fitness in a really really fun way to be able to um exercise to be able to be part of a team to be able to work toward a goal

And to be able to accomplish that goal so you begin to develop a sense of responsibility right uh not only to your teammates but to yourself and saying okay I got to do right I got to make sure that I keep these grades up I got

To make sure I show up on time for practice I got to make sure that I get these steps so that together as a unit we’re going to be able to succeed that was my first lessons and introduction into that level of discipline and from that it changed the of my

Life stepping may be the one thing that gets them excited about coming to school being a part of their step team it may be the one thing that get them excited about going to college because guess what they want to be part of one of our Greek African-American fraternities and

Sorority they want to be a part of the Divine n so that could be their motivation to go to to go to college to further their higher education so it’s it’s extremely important for this to become an official sport in schools Nationwide and now it’s up to us as

Leaders to kind of push that messaging right to be able to speak to school to school districts and it catches on after a while because when you’re able to show that this that this time period that these young people are practicing is less time for them being out in the out

In the streets we give millions of dollars in scholarships we gave $20 million in the course of a year across all nine organizations and stum Wars is a way for us to continue to do that great work in our community and we look forward to supporting and sponsoring for

Years to come because some of that money going towards scholarships so our students can actually get to College it’s very very [Applause] important the garden team they don’t new Sigma man they’ve been around for a long time and their step team has been around since the beginning of Stomp Wars and coach Keith Swanson has done an amazing job with that [Applause] Program the dynasty step is in Mansfield that’s another organization that there’s been a lot of step teams in the Mansfield Independent School District that’s been one at Lake Ridge that has been strong and solid because of the [Applause] coaching so kudos to both of those coaches and

Those programs man and they and they bring it when they hit the stomp War stage every single year a lot of young people come from highrisk situations and they come from situations where they need to see greater to be greater a lot of them come from marginalized neighborhoods um lowincome neighborhoods

And a lot of them has one parent in the house and this this is all they have and so if we can enable them in their communities it makes them even Bolder to go back even to be inspiration to those who may not have seen a way out so when

They’re able to um be able to come to an event like stop Wars and be a part of a movement like stom fors and feel at home like it’s family that’s another part that gets you right here in the heart we are excited about this movement we’re

Excited to support Rock T and his staff for the great things they’re doing to really support our youth through this step movement through scholarships and making sure that more of our youth get to College everybody on this stage is a Winner we don’t get caught up in the money we don’t get caught up even the trophies I know it’s all good but at the end of the day brothers and sisters is what it’s all about Unity is what it’s all about let’s go it’s fun to to for

The awareness of this culture to grow as it has it’s just on the college campuses anymore it’s in the schools it’s in the churches it’s in the communities we’re not going anywhere and we’re going to do our part to continue to add tremendous awareness and build this thing and grow

It as big as we possibly Can my favorite part of Stomp Wars is being able to see all the smiles on these kids’ faces being able to give give scholarships away cuz they’re excited about going to college joining the our the Divine n organizations and just do just do our part to add value in

In young kids and in you and young adults lives this is just one vehicle to help get them to the next level and uh that puts a smile on my face in my entire team’s face every single year and that’s why we continue to do it and we’re not Stopping

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