A group of players on the Tarpon Springs High School’s (American) football team, the Spongers, broke out their best Greek dance moves to the tunes of late performer Dimitris Mitropanos’s “Rosa” after a victorious game, with the posted video getting plenty of social media “traction”.
One teenage player, still wearing his gridiron gear, with a Greek flag in the background, can be seen swirling around, arms wide, with his teammates clapping and shouting “opa” (a Greek phrase exclaiming approval), showcasing his prowess at the popular zeibekiko dance.
The video was posted on TikTok by an account named Hellenic DNA, with the caption reading, “Greeks are everywhere. Watch the zeibekiko dance from the lads of the Tarpon Springs team.”
The zeibekiko is a Greek solo folk dance, often linked to the dancer’s expression of deep emotions of sorrow, joy, or pride.
Tarpon Springs, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, also known as the “Greek village” or the “Greek Island of Florida”, boasts the highest percentage of people of Greek ancestry in the United States. Nearly 10% of people with Greek roots in Tarpon Springs reportedly speak Greek at home. This is an astonishingly large percentage, given that these are primarily people whose parents or even grandparents were born in America.
The Spongers’ Facebook page is a testament to the teenagers’ pride about their roots, with numerous photos divulging their “Greekness.” Spongers is a nod to the sponging industry that was once dominant in the region, and the very reason why so many Greek immigrants, seamen and divers, mainly from the Dodecanese islands, headed for Tarpon Springs before WWII.
@hellenicdna Ελλάδα και Έλληνες ΠΑΝΤΟΥ. Και στο #americanfootball Δείτε το ζεϊμπέκικο από τα Ελληνόπουλα της ομάδας του #tarponsprings High School Football . #greecetravel #greecetiktok #footballtiktok ♬ πρωτότυπος ήχος – Hellenic DNA
