A day in the life of a Tarleton Texan Star

BY ANNABETH JOHNSON / Multimedia Journalist

Tarleton State University is a place with many opportunities and organizations that fit any passion or interest. The passion for dancing is one shared between Texan Stars Emma Siar and Anni Rowberry.

Siar is a freshman who can be spotted on the stadium turf supporting the Texans dancing as a Texan Star. She has been supporting the purple and the white as a Texan Star since July 2023, her favorite part of it being her very own teammates.

“My favorite part is definitely the girls,” Siar said. “We are a super close team, and they really just make it all worth it.”

With her academic and extracurricular activities, Siar has a full daily schedule.

Her day starts out with team weightlifting in the Wisdom Gym training room from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. The team’s weightlifting coach has their workout schedule set up before they arrive so that they are able to jump right into their workout sets.

After workouts, Siar heads straight to her first class of the day. This class lasts about an hour then she is onto the next item on her schedule.

She makes her way to the field to warm up and begin practice. Practice for the Texan Stars is from 9 a.m. to noon.

Siar’s practice starts with normal stretching and warmups that the team does together as a group. In order to keep their cardio up, the team makes sure to run a mile every day.

Once everyone is warmed up, they will go over the game day performances for the next football game. The Texan Stars run through their regular thunderstruck routine that is the same for every first quarter break at every football game.

Siar and the rest of the team then polish a new performance that they will show for the third quarter break. The final events of practice include learning new tricks, jumps or halftime performances for other Tarleton sports.

After practice, Siar will spend six hours completing assignments in study hall. As required, she will then submit those hours to the Athletic Administration Office.

On Tuesday nights, one of the Texan Star team members hosts a “Stars Bible Study” that Siar makes a point to attend weekly.

The end of bible study on Tuesdays marks the end of Siar’s day, and she goes home to rest before another packed full day as a Texan Star.

For freshman Anni Rowberry, her journey of being a Texan Star began just this school year.

Being on the same team, Rowberry and Siar share the same daily schedules.

With a background in dancing starting at eight years old, Rowberry realized how much she loved it and wanted to pursue dancing when at college.

Rowberry chose to pursue that dream at Tarleton upon hearing how much her close friend who graduated from Tarleton enjoyed the university and all it had to offer.

After looking at the dance program here at Tarleton and receiving a great first impression of the dance coach, Rowberry was instantly hooked.

Rowberry realized Tarleton was the place where she would fulfill that dream and build strong team bonds. Since all of the girls shared a common interest in dancing, they were able to grow in their friendships quickly.

“My favorite part [of being a Texan Star] is the friendships,” Rowberry said. “This [team] is where I found all my best friends.”