LHHS alums Dixon Ponce and Kayla West will dance as Aggie Wranglers
Kayla West and Dixon Ponce met at Lake Highlands High School just before the pandemic broke out. He was a Wildcat Wrangler junior teaching the ins-and-outs of country-and-western swing dance. She was a sophomore hopeful preparing to audition for the team.
COVID put a kink in things, shuttering the school and making live performances unworkable. Tryouts were postponed for several months.
Eventually, Ponce was named team captain and West didn’t make the cut, but a romance blossomed. And West never gave up her dream to dance as a Wrangler.
As Ponce’s graduation approached, he prepared to play baseball at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. West redoubled her efforts to become a Wrangler. The team is widely known for flipping, flying and twirling, and West was relentless in practicing all three. In the run up to her senior year, she made the squad.
Ponce is now a student at Texas A&M University, and West has been accepted to begin classes in the fall. Both recently earned spots on the Aggie Wranglers, the dance group LHHS patterned Wildcat Wranglers after. Richardson ISD later added western dance and stunt groups at its other three high schools.
The Aggie Wranglers perform at university events, including Fish Camp for freshmen, pep rallies and VIP parties. They are often seen on local TV and at ribbon cuttings for new businesses. They’ve auditioned for America’s Got Talent, shown their moves for Ellen DeGeneres and danced at presidential inaugurations. They were even featured in a music video by Midland which was nominated as ACM Video of the Year. You may view it on YouTube below.
“We are so thrilled to have the opportunity to be on this team,” West told me. “Traveling all around the world and sharing our love for Texas A&M through country western dancing is just one of the things we are most excited for. The best parts of becoming Aggie Wranglers are the lessons you learn and the people you meet along the way. We’re so thankful God has put this in our path to be a part of our college experience.”
You can follow Aggie Wranglers on all social media channels.
