SAN DIEGO — When a majorette dance team in its first year at the University of Southern California went viral, the original majorette dance team on the West Coast felt a need to set the record straight. In this Zevely Zone, I met the SDSU Diamonds.
Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but at an Aztec football game these diamonds shine bright for the whole stadium.
No matter your gender or your race, there's only one requirement to becoming a SDSU Diamond. "Well, you got to be able to move that's number one, you got to have a little rhythm. I don't care about your background, but you got to be able to move," said the team's coach Brionna June.
Majorette Dance is drawing a lot of attention at UC Berkeley. But nothing like the attention received by the USC Cardinal Divas. She described the dance style. "Majorette is typically at black colleges and universities known as HBCU's," said Brionna. "It started on the East coast."
The team in their first year went viral with a video clip viewed more than 3 million times. "We want to say first off congratulations to Berkeley and USC, first off we are proud of them," said Brionna. "Yeah, big energy," said Brionna during their practice.
The Diamonds started their team in 2012 and want to set the record straight on the West Coast. "All credit for being the first definitely has to go to the San Diego State Diamonds for sure," said Brionna.
Rather than be jealous of USC's success, the Diamonds applaud a cultural breakthrough. "Majorette stems from African, that is what African dance is you are moving your entire body," said Brionna who told us can lead to hurtful comments. "We've heard some terrible things, people be like oh, strippers, all they are doing is gyrating," said Brionna.
For the first four years of their program, the Diamonds say they weren't allowed to perform on the Aztec football field. "They didn't want us to be there," said team captain, Sakina Buycks. She told us that changed in 2016. "The fans love us, the stadium loves us, everyone loves us, so you got to put us there," said Sakina. "It's great I feel like we are the center of attention all off the time, ha, ha."
"The biggest thing I want to say is the West Coast needs to be ready because majorette is about to do a big thing on the West Coast and it's going to start right here," said Brionna.
When Diamonds shine like this success is set in stone. "This year we are celebrating our ten-years, a decade of diamonds," said Brionna. The SDSU Diamonds next performance will be at the Homecoming Football game on Saturday, November 5, when the Aztecs play UNLV at Snapdragon Stadium. For more information about the SDSU Diamonds click here.
Watch more Zevely Zone content below: