Answering Girl To High School Dance

Thunder up

NORMAN — Growing up in Moore, it looked like Shonna Chiles’ dream of being an NBA dancer would be hard to come by. She thought she would have to leave her home state in order to fulfill her calling.

But in 2008 when the Oklahoma City Thunder landed a few miles down the highway from Chiles’ home, it was like divine intervention.

“I’ve always hoped to dance for the NBA,” said Chiles, who graduated from Moore High in 2010. “So when Oklahoma City got a basketball team, I knew that was my chance to stay home with my family. Not have to venture out to another state. And live my dream.”

Thursday, Chiles was one of 20 ladies selected to form the 2011-12 Thunder Girls. It’s her second straight season to make the squad.

“It’s exciting,” Chiles said. “It’s a little bitter sweet because some of the veterans didn’t make it back on. You feel heart wrenching for them. But you have to feel happy for yourself. I am really excited and I worked really hard. I deserved it. So I’m excited.”

The final selections were held at Norman’s Riverwind Casino in front of a packed house. More than 1,000 fans from all over Oklahoma and surrounding states came out to cheer on the Thunder Girl hopefuls.

“We had nearly 120 girls tryout this year,” Thunder senior Vice president Brian Byrnes said. “That represents growth from the previous years. And we saw a higher level of dance experience and history in the girls that are trying out. After three years we are establishing something girls can aspire to.”

The finals consisted of the ladies dressing up in evening gowns and answering one question on stage. They displayed their dance skills in a choreographed routine.

Of the 39 women who made it to the finals, four hail from Moore and three have roots in Norman. They include Ashley Liddell, Kimberly Sullivan and Sheri Shoemaker. All seven made the final cut.

Liddell, who graduated from Norman North, is considered a veteran on the squad. She has made the team every year the franchise has been in Oklahoma.

A Writer Revisits High School: Part One - Life As A Human

I sat in my car outside the San Juan Country Club in Farmington, New Mexico. Inside, the dinner and dance for the 40th reunion of Farmington High School Class of 1968 was about to start. I sat there, just looking at the building – I was about to do something I’d never done in high school. I had a snapshot memory – me and my friend Bobby, sitting in his car outside the high school cafeteria, slumped down in our seats, looking through the window at the after-football-game dance going on inside. We didn’t go in. I never went to a high school dance. I was small for my age and very shy, and spent my high school years on the outside looking in.

In the middle of my junior year, my family moved away, and my life was too turbulent to think about dances. I had never gone to a reunion, not feeling connected with the high school I eventually graduated from. But this year, after exchanging emails with a woman I’d known in Farmington since the fourth grade, I had agreed to come back for this reunion. This was the town I grew up in, where I’d made a lot of friends, and lost touch with all of them over the years.

Now it was time to go inside and my stomach was in knots at the thought. I’d gone to the opening event on Friday night – a happy-hour gathering at the VFW hall, where I had visited with a few people I remembered, and had seen a lot of people I didn’t recognize or barely remembered. The group then moved over to the lounge at the Best Western motel, and I had gone along, visiting some with people before calling it a night. I had started to wonder if this whole thing was a mistake.

I was going to the Saturday night event because I’d paid for it, and a couple of guys I had known since junior high had re-gathered their band and were playing for the dance. They had started the band after I moved away, so I’d never seen them play. I decided to go for the dinner, listen to the guys play a couple of sets, and then leave. I checked my email once more from my cell phone. I had been answering messages about getting my book set up to be self published . I was also waiting to hear from a literary agent who was reading my manuscript, and might be interested in representing it. I was checking email often. There was finally no more reason to stall, so I gathered my courage, got out of the car, and went inside.

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