We are hearing from the Aggie Dance Team's head coach and captain tonight, responding to the heated debate over whether they should also be allowed to perform at football games at Kyle Field.

News 3 finds out how they feel about the possibility.

The sight and sounds of the Aggie Dance Team warming up before a basketball game are commonplace now, but it hasn't always been this way.
20 years ago, there was no group of women shimmying at Texas A&M athletic events.

"When I was on the team in '98, we actually sat in the stands, came down, danced and went back to the stands," said Courtney Martin, the dance squad's head coach.

Her team is at the center of lots of heated debate over breaking tradition and allowing the women to also perform at Kyle Field on football game days.

Martin said, "It's been interesting to hear all this debate about it...This wasn't something that came from the dance team, it came from the community, just kind of discussing it."

"You're either for it or against it...and I understand both sides of the situation and I'm pretty neutral myself," said Morgan Holcomb, the team's captain.

Athletic Director, Bill Byrne, announced today, via his weekly blog that the athletic department will fully support allowing the women to dance, if the student-led Traditions Council approves it.

Holcomb added, "I think a lot of it depends on our role. I think a lot of people are concerned with preserving the tradition and what A&M stands for and I completely agree with that."

This is the era of out with the old, ahem, Texas, and in with the southeastern conference after all.

Martin said, "The reason I love A&M is because of the traditions, at the same time, we are changing a lot...as far as not playing Texas anymore and changing and growing, so you know, maybe this would be something that would change too."

Currently, just under 47 percent of students at Texas A&M are women.