High School Soccer Star Picks Up the Mic and Dancing Shoes

BRANCHBURG, N.J.-

Justine Avila’s intention was to recreate the popular TV series “Glee.” But the former high school soccer star found out her intentions were harder to achieve then she thought.

Avila, 19, played soccer all four years at Bridgewater High School. When she started Raritan Valley Community College in 2009, Avila wanted something different. 

“I wanted college to be a new beginning,” says Avila, “This was my chance to do that.”

Instead of signing up for soccer at RVCC, she wanted to join a club that involved singing and dancing. But nothing like that was available to her besides taking a class.

“I didn’t want the stress of worrying about a grade,” says Avila, “I wanted to just join a club to have fun without the stress and worries. Sort of like soccer.”

While on campus, Avila met people who wanted the same things she did; a place to have fun and perform. “After 10 minutes of talking about it, we decided to create the Glee Club,” says Avila.

So the Glee Club was born but like all new things, it had a hard time getting started. Avila soon realized that her intention of recreating “Glee” was more difficult than planned.

“Glee wasn’t strict enough for members to stick with it.” says Avila, “Members would come and go as they pleased, which made making a routine extremely difficult.”

Avila wasn’t the only one getting frustrated. Members of Glee were getting just as upset as she was.

“Justine has such good intentions with Glee,” says Ray Almirante, member of Glee. “But she’s so frustrated with how the members are acting and members, in return, are frustrated because Glee isn’t getting anywhere.”

“I just stopped showing up,” says Kym Cwiek, another member of Glee. “Once I showed up for practice and was welcomed to an empty room, I had to call it quits.”

Avila planned to have Glee perform a love song for Valentine’s Day in 2011 but with all the confusion of practice dates and lack of commitment from members, nothing was performed during the Valentine’s day event at RVCC.

Avila has her doubts about the success of Glee Club. While she attends RVCC, she’s going to continue to bring Glee back every semester. 

“After I transfer from RV, I think I’m going to pick up the soccer ball again.” says Avila.