For freshman Shannon Seabolt, dance is life. You could imagine how she felt when Mercy got its very own Varsity Dance team for the first time.

“I’ve been doing dance for forever, and I’ve always wanted to do some sort of sport at Mercy or be on a team,” she said, “but I couldn’t really do anything else because I was like, full time dance, so dance team is kind of like the perfect option.”

Seabolt started dancing when she was just 3-years-old and hasn’t stopped since, making that a total of 11 years. She does all types of dance at Piazza Dance, including jazz, lyrical, and her favorites, contemporary and tap.

With Mercy’s Dance team, Seabolt will compete jazz and hip-hop routines against other high school dance teams. It is a multi-season sport, spanning over some part of all three seasons.

“I’m excited for the new experience and the competitions,” she said. For Seabolt, dance is such a big part of her life that it almost changed her decision to come to Mercy.

“I almost went to Northville because they had a dance team and Mercy didn’t,” she said, “but now that we have a dance team I know that I made the right choice.”

Seabolt and 13 other lucky dancers will set the standard for Mercy’s Dance team in the years to follow.