Poms gets ready with many routines ahead of them as they prepare for homecoming, football season, competition season, and Universal Dance Association (UDA) camp; right after accomplishing many achievements such as state finals and placing nationals.

Dancers look to UDA for where the best teams will go. UDA is mostly shown on the channel, ESPN, presenting the routines for cheer and dance; both at the college level and at high school level, even private dance teams.

“We typically go to UDA nationals each year, but this year we might not go because they’re increasing the amount of days of competition and it’s harder for us to do that because of the restrictions we have,” Johlie said.

The team however, is still attending the UDA camp this summer  to build the team to work together, and grow to being as strong as they can be. The camp is a way for them to qualify for nationals and are currently working on a routine at the moment for camp that the captains choreograph. The routine is performed at the camp so they can check whether the team is qualified for nationals.

“So far, summer training has been really fun and challenging. Learning new dances is also a really exciting time in the Poms room. The challenging parts of the practice are when we invent a new hip hop trick that could be incorporated into our competition dance routine for the future. The entire Poms team is very excited for the upcoming season,” Jessica Baltes, freshman, said.

Other than UDA camp, there are many other seasons the team has been preparing for.

“There’s so much we have planned for the team this year and I know the whole team and I especially are super excited to learn our competition dances and get ready for all the things we have to do during football season. For UDA, we are going to compete and try to qualify for Nationals in Florida in February! This year I was chosen to be a captain along with 3 other amazing senior girls and we’re all super excited to lead the team this year,” Kelly Brenner, junior captain, said.

The group also uses poms for other reasons aside from dancing, such as developing themselves as a person. Poms also helps the team be better students and how to grow in confidence.

“It’s not just working on the dance skills but we talk a lot about what it means to be a good team member and what to do to remain positive. As the year progresses and we’re practicing four days a week, it’s about maintaining grades and being a student first and influence both as a team member, what do we do to make the practices a positive experience. And how to handle real problems like setbacks and how to interact with others outside of poms,” Johlie said.