Mrs. Martinez is the drill team director of the Azle Emerald Dazzlers. Not only does she have a whole team, she also goes to the two middle schools to teach P.E. dance, has a P.E. dance period at the high school, has a regular P.E. period and goes to ISS to watch over students assigned there. In my eyes, she’s basically Wonder Woman.
Being with her on the drill team since she started has been such an amazing experience. When she came in on the 22-23 team, she came in ready to put in hard work, encourage us, and push us to exceed what we thought we couldn’t do. Coming up on her third year, she has grown and excelled so much on her personal growth, as well team growth. I feel so blessed to work with her and my fellow officers my final year of high school.
My senior year has been full of tears, smiles, laughs, jokes, sweat, hard work, tough moments and bittersweet moments. I will never forget the feeling of doing officer strut for the first time until the last time to our team pictures in the summer to our last ‘23-‘24 team picture during the Spring Show season. Martinez helped me get a handle on my emotions, helped lead me in an officer position and overall, was just there for me when I needed her most. Whether it be a tiny joke or a sentimental moment I tried my best to make her smile because she always makes me smile (or cry).
I knew that even as a director she would have to be stern on me, but I knew that she just wanted me to be the best of myself. Over this past year, she has also helped and inspired me personally to discover my passions. She did such a great job this year with our team and I personally think this has been a really great year for the Emerald Dazzlers.
Not only did the team dig in and grow, so did our director. We grew our social media so much during football season, put on a Christmas recital, did three competitions, got to visit a University, and put on an unforgettable Spring Show with elementary kids wanting to dance and the upcoming team. The ‘23-‘24 team couldn’t have done it without Martienz. Thank you Ms. Martinez for just being yourself.
