An exciting halftime dance off at the Walpole-Westwood tournament game took place between two Westwood fans and a Walpole fan on Friday, February 28. The face-off began when Westwood’s fan section, the Den, challenged Walpole’s fan section, the Walpole Brigade, to a halftime dance battle the night before the big game via twitter. Walpole Senior Jon Kelland saw the challenge and accepted it. The dance was video taped and put up on YouTube by The Boston Herald, then Barstool, a Boston sports website with entertaining news and videoclips, where it became a hit.
Kelland went out on the court, wearing an American flag draped around his neck and dark sunglasses. The Westwood competitors were decked out in green; one wore short shorts and tall green socks, which drew shouts from the Walpole side. The outfits of both towns set the scene for the dance as the music blasted and the three teenagers busted out crazy moves and the crowd watched — some mocking, some cheering, some in awe.
The dance off lasted just under two minutes and the video of it has over 10,000 views on YouTube. Kelland said, “It’s pretty interesting being on YouTube, but hopefully it’s not one of those things where people recognize you in public for it.” Fans that were not at the game can watch the video online here and witness the hilarity that took place.
Kelland discovered that one of his friends from Westwood was in on the challenge and said that was part of why he accepted it. Kelland said, “At halftime they went out there, which I didn’t expect them to do. But I said I was going to do it, so I had to.” Kelland stayed true to his word and danced against the Westwood challengers by himself.
Dancing in front of hundreds of fans was not an easy thing for Kelland to do. “I probably would have done better with other people out there,” Kelland said, “but that aside I’m awful at dancing so it probably would not have made any difference.” Since the dance off was not fully planned, no one was prepared to go out there with Kelland, forcing him to dance alone.
Since Kelland is a senior, he will not be participating in more dance offs next year; however, the spring sports season has just begun. When asked if there were any plans for spring dance offs this year, he said, “You never know what the future may bring. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” So keep an eye out for Kelland at games this spring, for he may just make some more spontaneous senior memories.
