At every boys’ football and basketball game, expect a halftime show featuring the Lewis-Palmer Poms Team who can also be seen during fall and winter sports’ assemblies. Placing ninth at State this year, the highest they have placed in a few years, the team brought home PPAC; the Pikes Peak Athletic Conference and PPAC Regional Championships as well. Poms is separated into two teams: a competitive Varsity team which consists of the most qualified dancers in Poms, and the entire spirit team.

“I love the dancing and I love being able to learn new things and grow as a dancer. It’s something I want to continue with and it’s great to have something that’s artistic, but also physical. Like with other sports where there is set rules, (with poms) you can be free with it, you can be creative,” Erika Peterson, 10, said.

This year, students’ have noticed that the team has added some modern flares to their routines such as costumes instead of their uniforms and alternating the genre and choreography of weekly performances. However, as tradition still clings to the 21st century, the classic kickline is choreographed in as the highlight of the majority of the routines.

“We pretty much do a lot of running routines. When we’re not learning routines we’re practicing them and occasionally we throw some conditioning in there. Conditioning and technique was more towards the beginning of the year because it’s so fast paced at this time of the year that we have to get in practice as much as possible. There comes a point where it’s not the moves that are hard anymore, it’s hard collaborating and working with the people around you. But it’s also just the overhanging stress of school and other things that transfers over. You have that negative energy cloud hanging over everyone. We always find a way to push through,” Peterson said.

From August to the middle of February, practices ran Monday through Thursday from 3:15 p.m. to 5:15 at night. Practices include cleaning up their routines to make them as flawless as possible for the week’s upcoming performances and perfecting separate dance techniques. The goal has always been to create and improve each dancer in the areas of expression and skill, so that routines can have more intricate choreography in the future. Many times routines are choreographed by members’ of the team. The previous performance, on February 17, was choreographed by one the captains, Peterson.

“It depends on your experience, like some of the new girls are kind of struggling to pick up the choreography because it’s not something they’re used to, they’re not used to learning so fast. It’s difficult and it can be stressful for everyone as well,” Peterson said.

Poms is broken into two parts: a fall season and winter season, which means the members have the opportunity to double-letter. During football season, they not only do a halftime performance but they also do a short dance during the two quarter breaks. Kicklines are also done when the football team scores, and the amount of kicks matches the football team’s points. The girls perform in front of sometimes more than one-hundred people.

“I do get nervous because we work so hard and we want it to be the best that it can be. It does depend, like state you have so many nerves, but then for dances in front of the school it’s more fun nerves,” Lindsay Purdham, 10 said.

Friday February 19, Poms performed at the Lewis-Palmer vs. Palmer Ridge boys basketball game. In past years, the girls perform at their highest ability because of the high amount of attendance this big game brings in. It is also the team’s own personal senior night, where the two seniors on the team, Hannah Chipman and Devyn Ritchie, have their own eight-count solo.

“I’d say our routine on friday was more fun than hard. It’s probably harder for the seniors just because they have their senior solo, but for us it’s more of a fun dance,” Purdham said.

With every sport, athletes have their likes and dislikes of the team. For the Poms Team, most girls said that it is the commitment of the team practice times and having to get used to doing homework late at night after practice or if they had a basketball or football game to perform at is a downfall. The light that shines through is the applause they get during and after a performance and being able to freely express themselves and allows them to bring out their creativity and emotion and show it through dance. The Lewis-Palmer Poms Dance Team was sad to say goodbye to the seniors, but is excited to see what the future has in store for them.