AUSTIN – The Albert Lea High School dance team may be on the budget chopping block.

Tuesday, February 05, 2002

AUSTIN – The Albert Lea High School dance team may be on the budget chopping block.

But the girls sure aren’t letting it hamper their performance.

The Tigers had their best showing of the season in Saturday’s Austin Invitational, finishing first in the High Kick division and third in Jazz/Funk.

&uot;We had a real good day,&uot; said coach Charla Kleinbeck. &uot;The girls worked real hard and deserved what they got. They went out and put their whole heart into it. Everything was on. We couldn’t have asked them to dance any better than they did. (Assistant coach Rachel Schmidt) and I were real proud of what they did. It was a lot of fun.&uot;

Though the program is set to be eliminated after this season because of district-wide budget cuts, Kleinbeck and others are hopeful it can be sustained through private funding. The catch is that the team must be affiliated with the school in order to compete for conference, section and state titles.

The section meet is next for the Tigers, Feb. 16 at Faribault. The top four teams in each division advance to state.

&uot;It’s tough competition, but we’re hoping with some good practices coming up that we can maybe get in there,&uot; said Kleinbeck. &uot;We’re hoping to take at least one of our dance crews to state.&uot;

The Tigers’ next halftime performance is Tuesday, Feb. 12 during the ALHS girls’ basketball game against Rochester Mayo. Game time is 7:30.