Eastview's dominant dance team, for the third year in a row, is an All-Metro Team Champion

Coach Jenny Raiche heads into retirement having won half of the state titles that were in play during her 20 years.

July 26, 2022 at 4:37PM
Eastview celebrates after being named Class 3A champions during the Jazz dance state meet Feb. 18, 2022, at Target Center. (Matt Blewett, Special to Star Tribune)
The Eastview dance team and coach Jenny Raiche (far left) celebrated after another state championship in February that helped make the Lightning the 2022 All-Metro Team Champion in dance. (Matt Blewett, Special to Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Jenny Raiche is stepping away, and she's walking off with one more award won by the team she coached for 20 years.

Eastview is the winner of the All-Metro Team Champion award in dance for 2022.

That's three such awards in a row for Eastview. If there's a fourth in 2023, Raiche won't be the coach accepting the honor. She retired from coaching after the past season, and Taylor Varghese, an Eastview 2010 graduate, is taking over. Raiche won't be far away.

"Staying connected in the coaching community and giving back in mentoring coaches is definitely something that will be in my future," she said.

Eastview swept the two dance state titles, High Kick and Jazz, again this year, the team's sixth sweep since 2014. The Lightning went 20-0 and haven't lost a meet since 2019.

Under Raiche, Eastview won either the High Kick or Jazz state titles 20 times. That's exactly half the state titles that were available.

"The success of our program comes from a supportive Eastview athletic community, AD, parents and, most importantly, kids who come on to this team knowing there are high expectations, and they buy into the culture of our team right away," Raiche said. "You get what you give."

about the writer

Kevin Bertels

High school sports team leader

Kevin Bertels has led the Star Tribune’s high school sports coverage since fall 2021. Before that, he spent 23 years as the newspaper’s night Sports section coordinator, placing him in charge of the Sports copy desk.

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