Drill Team as Athletes
By Joyce E. Pennington

The concept of dance/drill team was created in 1929 at Greenville High School by Gussie Nell Davis, who later created the Kilgore College Rangerettes in 1940. Dance/drill team has evolved into an art form in addition to its athletic activity. It was considered for many years as a physical education activity and was required by the state to be taught by P.E. certified teachers. 
 
Currently, dance/drill team receives both as P.E. credit along with a Fine Arts credit because of its diversity.  To assume that dance/drill team is not a competitive sport is to say that any activity that is judged objectively instead of subjectively is not considered a sport. Other athletic activities such as, diving, wrestling and gymnastics, are all judged and scored by an objective opinion instead of a subjective score.

Dance/drill teams compete in the same way by objective scores from professional judges. The competitive events offered in dance/drill team are similar to a diving, wresting or gymnastics meet in where there is an entry fee paid to compete and the participants may qualify to go on to a regional or national event.