What are all the spirit groups at Baylor?

The All-Girl Cheer and Co-ed Cheer are cheerleading squads. Bruiser and Marigold (Baylor’s costumed mascots) is just a group of students that represent Bruiser and Marigold. And the Songleaders are dance.

Cheer is more like stunting and tumbling, sign work with the megaphones, yelling, traditional cheerleader stuff. The
Songleaders are on the sidelines (of football games). We are doing sideline dances and have signs and are engaging fans that way, but our choreography is more movement, more dance-y.

One of our big performances is during a media break. It’s the first media break during the third quarter, and we’ll do a dance there. We also dance at basketball, volleyball and baseball.

We do a different dance (at every home football game).

We try to learn a lot of the routines in the summer. Next week, I actually have all of them back for camp and it’s just to get ready for football. They’ve learned all their material virtually over the summer. They submit videos to me each week, so we’re checking in with them each week. But they’ll be here and we’ll work on all of our football (dances). I like to have a lot of those learned in the summer and then we’re just reviewing.

And then we compete nationally, but we’re not an NCAA sport. We’ve been competing at Dance Team Union. We were pom national champion at DTU. But we are transitioning to a different competition this next year called Universal Dance Association. It’s where most of the large competitive Division 1 programs go. We’ll definitely be in a larger category with a lot more talent, but we’re really excited and it’s really helped grow our program.

Did you dance in college?

Yes, I was on the dance team at OU — we were called the Oklahoma Pom Squad. I was on the team for two years. I actually didn’t make the OU Pom Squad my freshman year. OU was my dream school — my family’s all from Oklahoma, my grandparents all live there. We’re big Sooner fans. I knew that I was going to go there regardless, and it was my dream to make the team. And when that didn’t happen, I stayed at OU my freshman year and trained really hard.

I took classes. I went to their recruiting clinics. I would not be the coach that I am today without that experience of not making the team. It really humbled me. You’re not a part of a team. No one’s kicking down the door if you’re not going to practice, because you have to be self-motivated. I think it gave me a whole new perspective, and I changed why I loved dance. I was doing it for myself versus the external validation. Then I was on the team my sophomore and junior and then graduated early after that.

Once I graduated, I didn’t think I was going to do anything with dance. I didn’t study dance. I thought I was going to be a physical therapist and did some job shadowing and decided that was not for me. I started working when I was part-time here for a healthcare account management company and I was doing this on the side, but definitely felt that this was my calling. So when the job opened up in 2024, I was like, ‘It’s now or never, I should go for it.’ I’ve loved it.

What got you into dance?

I went to ‘The Nutcracker’ with my parents and I wanted to do ballet. I think I was 2-and-a-half, and they didn’t have a 2-year-old class, so I had to wait until I turned 3. Then once I turned 3, my mom put me in my first ballet class and I loved it and I’ve done it ever since.

What do you like about your job?

I love the age that I’m getting to coach. It’s such a transformational time in their life. Most of them are away from home, so they’re getting to be independent. It’s really fun to get to see them navigate through life. I love having four-year members and seeing how they grow from being a freshman all the way to being a senior and how much maturity and growth happens. I also love the university collaboration. I’ve loved dance ever since I was 3 years old, but I think I have always been drawn to college because I love the collaboration between the university and the athletic events. And then I still get the competitive aspect of dance with us being able to compete at nationals. I think college dance team for me just meshes all of it together and I get to experience all the amazing aspects of dance. It’s definitely my dream job.

Annie Carrell is the assistant director of Spirits & Traditions in the athletic department at Baylor University, and is head coach of the Songleaders dance team. Carrell graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in mental and physical health studies. She was also a member of the OU dance squad. She has worked at Baylor since August of 2023. She just celebrated her third wedding anniversary with her husband Zach, who played baseball for the Sooners. He’s the co-founder of SideCoach Sports, which connects college athletes with young people in the community for coaching opportunities.