The Varsity Poms team will be competing in a conference-wide dance competition in the field house on Saturday, December 12.

“[This event] is a competition invite where we invite other dance teams in our conference to a competition we are hosting,” Chloe Wallace, sophomore on Varsity Poms, said.  “The purpose of it is really that we will be competing against these teams at sectionals.  We use these local competitions that don’t act as determiners of how far we go into the competition season to see how we compare to teams that we will go up against at bigger competitions.”

The Poms team won third in State and fifth in Nationals last year. In 2012 they were named the State Grand Champions, meaning they got first in both routines.  Also, the team won fourth in Nationals in 2013, according to Wallace.  This competition is a chance for the team to see how they compare to other teams and how well they will do in State and Nationals this year.

“We have a new team this year, so it is a new experience every single year, but I think our choreography is creative this year, so hopefully it’s received well by the crowd,” Sophie Young, sophomore on Varsity Poms, said.

With a new team, Young thinks they need to bond and gain experience from performing so they will be ready when State and Nationals comes around.  

“There will be much more stress to do well because it will be at our school and there will be a lot to prove coming off last year’s season,” Wallace said.  “Also, this will be much more exciting because [the competition] is at our own school, so more familiar faces will be in the audience.”

Since the competition is at the school, the athletes on the team hope people will come out and support them.

“[Students should go to the competition because] I think a lot of people don’t really know what poms is,” Young said.  “We usually get confused with cheerleading.  Going to the competition will allow [people] to see what we’re all about.  I think people should see an art form combined with athletics, and to see the results of hours of hard work the team puts in in order to do what we do.”