With a uniform recognizable from a glance, the Coppell High School Lariettes are a crucial part of school spirit and Coppell community service, now celebrating a 60-year legacy. 

For their diamond anniversary, the Lariettes are holding an alumni weekend on Friday and Saturday. Organized by Lariettes director Hayley Mitchell and the Lariettes Service Organization (LSO), more than 100 Lariette alumnae are set to attend the events and reminisce on their days with the drill team.

“We’ve never done anything like this before and since we are in one of those golden years, I decided that it would be fun to be able to really amp up our alumni organization and try to get them and our current Lariettes connected in a way that we’ve never really done before,”  Mitchell said.

The events begin on Friday with the 35th Annual Spaghetti Dinner prior to the Coppell footbal game against Sachse, an evening where the community is invited to dine together and fundraise for the drill team.

Apart from this game day tradition, the Coppell community will experience a halftime show never seen before on Friday night at Buddy Echols Field. During the performance, the current Lariettes will take the field alongside alumni. 

“The alumni are going to have special jerseys with the number on the back of the year they graduated, and then the girls will be in their uniforms. It’ll be a beautiful sight to see and I can’t wait for the community to see it,” LSO President Radha Sugumaran said.

While the Lariettes have been rehearsing at school over the summer and into the school year, the alumni have been rehearsing remotely with videos and help from current members. They will have two official rehearsals with all the alumni to get them performance ready. 

Lariettes senior lieutenant Chloe Christianson has a long-lasting legacy with the program, with both her mom, Courtney Christianson, and aunt, Lindsay Monteleone, being former Lariettes from the CHS classes of 1997 and 2001. 

“I’ve always looked up to the Lariettes. My mom and my aunt were both Lariettes when they were in high school, so we’ve always had their uniforms at my house and I remember I would always put it on and be like, I’m a Lariette,” Chloe Christianson said. “Both my mom and my aunt will be in it, so I’m super excited to get to dance with them.”

The thrill of taking the stage once again is met with meticulous practice as former Lariettes get back to dancing.

“It’s been probably 30 years since we’ve danced, especially to counts, so I’m trying to learn it off of a video and I’m like, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down,’” Courtney Christianson said. 

After the game on Friday, celebrations continue on Saturday morning as the alumni and the current lineup gather for tea. 

“We’re just going to sit and reminisce, and have a chance to get together with alumni to talk about their time here,” Mitchell said. 

Throughout the years, the program has changed in many ways. 

“They have a lot of traditions that they’ve started within the last 20 years that are really cool, like the wild west kick routine,” Courtney Christianson said. “They have different uniforms; when we were there, our uniforms were all one piece. Now, it comes in like six pieces, so it’s a lot cooler for them.”

But some aspects still stand the test of time.  

“We’re just one big family that goes on forever,” Chloe Christianson said.

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