 "Photo: Stephen Bateman")
Freshman Derek Starnes considers himself to be a pretty lucky man.
Starnes, who is a freshman in poultry science, is the only male member of the Wolfpack clogging team, and he has no problem with that fact.
"Sometimes there's drama, but it's not that bad," Starnes said. "Occasionally I wish there were more guys on the team, but most of the time I like it just the way it is."
Starnes said the most frustrating thing about the clogging club is not the girl-to-guy ratio; it is the fact that most outsiders have no idea what he and his teammates are doing on weeknights in the Carmichael dance studio.
"Western North Carolina is a big place for clogging, but people around here generally don't know what it is," Starnes said. "Plus, a lot of times the people who think they do really don't."
Meredith Craig, a junior in business management who has served as the club's president for three years, echoed that assessment.
"People don't understand the sport," Craig said. "People envision a sort of Riverdance thing, which is not correct."
Club treasurer Sarah Mitchell, a senior in biological sciences, has often heard a more amusing assumption about her craft.
"A lot of people think we wear wooden shoes, which always makes me laugh a little bit," Mitchell said. "Those would be very hard to dance in. We actually wear white shoes."
N.C. State has one of the few school-sponsored clogging teams in the area. The team has recently regained its Club Sports affiliation -- a fact that Craig and her fellow cloggers are ecstatic about.
"We just received full affiliation, and that's very exciting for our team," Craig said. "We've been working since 2006 to make that happen."
The team, which has been around since 1989 and has held club status in the past, dropped its affiliation some time ago once State began offering an advanced clogging class.
"We decided to go back to being a club because we knew we would have many more opportunities through Club Sports," Craig said. "We want to get back into competition, for sure."
Craig described clogging as a form of tap that is faster and louder. Students that have a background in tap dancing are especially encouraged give it a try, because as Craig said, "they usually pick it up pretty easily."
Traditional clogging originated in Wales and England and has since become very popular in the Appalachian area. It is now performed to a wide variety of music, including country and rock, and was adopted as the official state folk dance of North Carolina.
While Starnes' family introduced him to the style of dance, most members -- including Craig and Mitchell -- picked it up because they had a background in dance and wanted to try something different.
"A lot of people think it's really cool when I show them what it is," Starnes said.
Although clogging is deeply rooted in tradition, State's clogging team has been working to keep up with the times. The club has revamped its Web site, is actively recruiting members and has tried out several new advertising techniques, including painting notices in the Free Expression Tunnel.
"We were really hoping to recruit some more team members because we've got some very exciting things planned," Craig said.
Mitchell said the members are fitting some needed changes into the budget.
"We've been really trying to get new costumes because we're still wearing old ones from the 80s," Mitchell said. "We have some country western costumes that have black collar shirts with fringe -- we've been trying to phase those out."
The Wolfpack clogging team has performed well in recent events, taking first in a competition at this year's State Fair and earning several other accolades in the process. However, its members are looking to mix up their routines so that they might fare better in the future. Starnes said he wants to use the knowledge he gained in competitive clogging to benefit the team.
"We practice old dances to keep them fresh and looking decent, but we're working on a few ones that could help us out in competitions and stuff," Starnes said. "A lot of people on the team don't have a solid clogging competition background, so I've been trying to change that. For the past few months, I've been teaching everyone a few of the dances I choreographed."
Mitchell said she has seen drastic improvement during her time on the clogging team and that she is confident the team will continue to move forward.
"We've definitely come together a lot over the last few years," Mitchell said. "Since Meredith and I were freshmen, we've lost a coach and dealt with some adversity. But we've choreographed a few new routines, which hadn't happened for awhile, and we've been successful with recruiting. We've grown a lot, but I think there's definitely room for more growth."
