Saratoga Springs school’s Jump Team takes jump roping to new heights
Harvest Springs Elementary School students participate in a jump rope performance or the school Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in Saratoga Springs. The jump team, coordinated by 6th grade teacher Todd Bilbao, has not only performed for its own school, but has gone to other schools to perform for students after their countless hours of practice. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Harvest Springs Elementary School students participate in a jump rope performance or the school Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in Saratoga Springs. The jump team, coordinated by 6th grade teacher Todd Bilbao, has not only performed for its own school, but has gone to other schools to perform for students after their countless hours of practice. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Harvest Springs Elementary School students participate in a jump rope performance or the school Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in Saratoga Springs. The jump team, coordinated by 6th grade teacher Todd Bilbao, has not only performed for its own school, but has gone to other schools to perform for students after their countless hours of practice. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Harvest Springs Elementary School students participate in a jump rope performance or the school Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in Saratoga Springs. The jump team, coordinated by 6th grade teacher Todd Bilbao, has not only performed for its own school, but has gone to other schools to perform for students after their countless hours of practice. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Harvest Springs Elementary School students participate in a jump rope performance or the school Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in Saratoga Springs. The jump team, coordinated by 6th grade teacher Todd Bilbao, has not only performed for its own school, but has gone to other schools to perform for students after their countless hours of practice. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Harvest Springs Elementary School students participate in a jump rope performance or the school Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in Saratoga Springs. The jump team, coordinated by 6th grade teacher Todd Bilbao, has not only performed for its own school, but has gone to other schools to perform for students after their countless hours of practice. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Harvest Springs Elementary School students participate in a jump rope performance or the school Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in Saratoga Springs. The jump team, coordinated by 6th grade teacher Todd Bilbao, has not only performed for its own school, but has gone to other schools to perform for students after their countless hours of practice. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Harvest Springs Elementary School students participate in a jump rope performance or the school Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in Saratoga Springs. The jump team, coordinated by 6th grade teacher Todd Bilbao, has not only performed for its own school, but has gone to other schools to perform for students after their countless hours of practice. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Harvest Springs Elementary School students participate in a jump rope performance or the school Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in Saratoga Springs. The jump team, coordinated by 6th grade teacher Todd Bilbao, has not only performed for its own school, but has gone to other schools to perform for students after their countless hours of practice. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
For nine years, Harvest Elementary School students in Saratoga Springs have been showing off their fancy footwork and creativity through jump roping.
The team provides a lot of motivation for the students involved and helps them stay healthy at the same time, sixth-grade teacher Todd Bilbao said at the group’s final performance of the year on Tuesday.
“We see how it builds self confidence for kids,” he said. “We have kids on the team that are completely shy when they first start and by the end they just shine.”
The 30-minute performance allowed the students to show off the tricks they’d been taught and the ones they’d made up as they jumped in groups or individually.
While double dutch may have looked impressive as a kid, these students took it to a new level by adding fancy footwork. They also leapfrogged over the students turning the jump rope, jumped from push up formation among many other tricks jumped rope inside a larger jump rope.
“A lot of the tricks you saw today they came up with and then I worked with them to modify and make them a little more interesting,” he said.
Bilbao said the 50-student team meets twice a week for 30 minutes after school starting in October. But the students practice extra to reach the level they are at.
“They can’t this good just at school, they have to go home and practice,” Bilbao said.
The students need to learn 25 tricks he teaches them to stay on the team and keep their grades high and behave well.
“I ran into a ninth grader who was on it (the Jump Team) and he said, ‘The only way I made it through sixth grade was because of the team. I would never have done my work,'” he said.
The high grades and good behavior are especially important because the since they do travel to perform at other schools in connection with the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope for Heart kick-off assemblies each year, Bilbao said.
Assistant Principal Patrice Worlton said the team helps the kids get involved and work toward a goal they’ve developed.
“It is such a motivator for the kids to not only be healthy but to work toward something,” Worlton said. “They stay after school and they have to have their grades. It’s such a good motivator for them to want to do something that is fun and great for them.”
It’s also had a school-wide effect because assemblies like the one held on Tuesday show the younger students how cool jump roping can be.
“From second grade on you’ll see them out at recess jump roping saying, ‘I’m going to be on the Jump Team when I get big,'” Worlton said.
