The Panther Spirit Squad (also known as the Spirit Squad) is all about promoting Panther Pride at Florida Tech! This organization is entirely student-led.
The Panther Spirit Squad was founded in 2022 at the Florida Institute of Technology. This club sport consists of multiple teams: the General Team which meets biweekly to learn fun dance routines or techniques like line dancing, Disney choreography, and more; the Performance Team which performs at requested appearances like ice hockey games and varsity basketball games; and the Competition Team which competes at the annual NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida.
On September 30th, 2021, the Florida Tech Cheer and Dance Team received notice from Florida Tech Athletic Director Jamie Joss that the program was going to be eliminated at the end of the 2021/2022 academic year. The team continued to move forward with participation at the NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship in April 2022, where our team placed 5th in the Division 2 Pom category. One of our team captains, Gayle Portoff, was awarded the Athletic Director’s Leadership Award at the 2021-2022 Athletics Award Ceremony. With that, the varsity experience for cheer & dance at Florida Tech came to an end.
Following the news that the team would be cut that year, the team decided that they wanted to pursue becoming a club sport at Florida Tech. Panther Pride deserved to continue through a cheerleading and dance squad, so becoming a club sport was an easy decision. Over the months that followed, the team spent many hours each week practicing for the national competition. Whenever they thought about the future, they told each other “Let’s get through the competition, and then we’ll put together our club.” The disappointment of being cut by Athletics was heavy, but the excitement for a national performance and for the future as a part of Student Life was buzzing in each team member.
On Thursday, April 7th, 2022, the team competed at the NDA College Nationals. On Monday, April 11th, the team was in the Student Life office to begin their transition into club sports. It was a long road with many meetings throughout the end of the Spring 2022 semester and the summer, but the founding executive board of the brand-new Panther Spirit Squad hit the ground running in Fall 2022.
The Panther Spirit Squad has made appearances and performed at a variety of events like Orientation Week, Pride Week, and more. In Fall 2022, the Panther Spirit Squad started a partnership with the Florida Tech Ice Hockey and attended all home games to cheer the team on and engage with the crowd. Other club sports have requested the Panther Spirit Squad for their games or tournaments and we are more than happy to be there! Other appearances so far include Greek Life events. We plan on being at Sunshine State Conference home games for both the men’s and women’s varsity basketball games.
If you would like the Panther Spirit Squad to be at your event, please submit an Appearance Request . Please submit your request at least two weeks before your event for any performance requests and at least one week before your event for any appearance/non-performance requests. We kindly ask that there be no latex products, including balloons, at your events to ensure the safety of our team.
We truly appreciate your donation! Your contribution will assist us in having uniforms for all members who join to provide an inclusive experience, as well as competition expenses and anything that will help us share school spirit!
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