The Atholton POMS team hosted its first competition here at Atholton on February 2nd, but with some major key differences than one might expect from the competition.
For starters the team didn’t actually compete at Atholton, which may surprise some people. Instead they served as a “backstage crew” for the 19 teams present at the event, getting safety pins, making sure teams are where they’re supposed to be, and making sure the teams can get to places that they need to be at. “It was really busy,” said Sophomore Shravya Reddy with everything going on backstage.
“There’s a lot of steps, a lot of efforts,” according to Mrs. Nicole Payne, the POMS instructor, that goes into setting up the competition. She is referring to any safety concerns, making sure there’s enough space, the means to actually host the competition, etc., that needs to be addressed before teams can even come.
As for the actual competition, there are three divisions, each with a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for each style. The styles included poms, lyrical, jazz, band, hip hop, and prop, so each were different styles of dance. There were 9 winners of the 19 teams present.
During the competition, the POMS team raised money for expenses that their team needs to cover outfits, poms, and bus fees, but, according to Shravya, the amount couldn’t be disclosed.
With all of the running around and coordination that the POMS team did, there’s no rest for the wicked. They have competitions from January through March, when states happen, and they dance at different events like basketball games, so the years just begun for them. Their next competition is happening at some point this month according to Mrs. Payne, so now that the competition at Atholton has ended, the team’s getting right back into the fray.