Entering the final round during four out of five of their competitions this year, Synergy ended their season with more victories than they’ve ever had before.

Synergy has never made it into finals in one season more than twice since 2016. Stepping up from traditional show choir way of singing and dancing to trending songs, the group director, David Groth took a different route by adding a plot to their show titled, “The Dark side of the Rainbow.” This story is set around the idea of what Oz was like after Dorthy had returned home and left an evil Scarecrow to take over.

“I liked the fact that it had a story, and it had an arc to it and there were moments of darkness and moments of light and different tone qualities throughout the opening,” Groth said.

The judges must have liked that too because with “The Dark side of the Rainbow” Synergy found themselves in finals at almost every competition they performed at. Placing 7th at Glenwood Gala, 6th at Wahoo Court of Champions, 5th at Omaha North Viking Cup and 3^rd at the Grand Island Islander Invitational.

“While I have always been proud of what our students put out there, it is a good feeling to know that our students’ hard work is being recognized,” Groth said. “Like I always say, it is great to have fun, but it is more fun to be great, and this group took that idea and ran with it.”

Not only did the group win multiple awards as a unit, but graduating senior and the lead of the show, Cooper Strickland, who played The Scarecrow won best bass soloist at Grand Island Islanders Invitational.

“I’ve been wanting to do a story set since freshman year and we finally got one and I got to play a big character and it was really cool,” Strickland said.

Alongside The Scarecrow, senior Lucy Reid who played as The Tin Man earned best treble soloists at the same competition.

“I think with a story set this year we were able to become characters a lot easier and I think it created more of a team mentality for us,” Reid said.

Synergy has experienced many victories this year along with priceless memories together. But sadly, the year is now ending, and they have performed their last show at Omaha North, placing in 7th. 

It is always an emotional time, especially for the seniors who are graduating from the group to move on to the next chapter in their lives.

“It feels like a family. We fight like a family. We care for each other like a family. We treat each other like a family,” Groth said. “And I think that you can’t really teach that. I think it’s a cool thing that we have that nobody else has.”