For over a decade, the Seattle Storm Dance Troupe has been something rare in professional sports - a program built entirely around youth dancers.

Not adults. Not professionals. Teenagers. Kids as young as five. Young dancers who auditioned, earned their spot, and then showed up every single game to represent a WNBA franchise in front of thousands. They trained like professionals. They performed like professionals. And after every game, long after the Storm players returned to the locker room, it was these kids who stayed behind - still in uniform, still representing the Seattle Storm and signing autographs for every young girl and boy in the stands who looked up at them and thought: that could be me someday.

That pipeline is now being shut down.

The Seattle Storm has announced that tryouts for the Dance Troupe will be restricted to dancers 18 and older, eliminating the youth program entirely. A program that Storm players praised publicly after every game. A program that Doug Baldwin invited to his celebrity basketball game because they outperformed adult professional dance squads. A program that Adidas invested in. A program that gave young dancers in the greater Seattle community something that exists nowhere else...the chance to perform on a professional stage and prove that age has nothing to do with excellence.

The New York Liberty runs a youth dance program. The Connecticut Sun runs a youth dance program. Both are holding tryouts for 2026. The Seattle Storm - a franchise built on the empowerment of women and girls - is walking away from theirs.

We are the families, fans, season ticket holders, and dance community members who have watched this program transform young lives. We are asking the Seattle Storm to reverse the 18+ restriction, restore the youth troupe, and have a real conversation with the community that has supported this program from the beginning.

The Storm has always stood for the empowerment of women and our youth. This decision contradicts that mission. We're asking them to live up to it.