Hannah Haney | Echo
In a rush of gold, purple, black and glitter, the Taylor POMS team ran onto the football field Saturday night for the first time, causing a massive roar from the crowd. After months of practicing and bonding, the team of seven turned, high-kicked and shook their pom poms to a two minute mash up of "Slim Shady" by Eminem, "Blow" by Ke$ha, "Feel So Close" by Calvin Harris and others. The student body eagerly responded to the POMS team's first performance, cheering and singing along to their favorite songs.
The performers were blown away by the audience's response.
"We first started dancing and then (to) hear the crowd cheering . . . people started clapping and singing along and that was so encouraging," said sophomore Abby Adams, the team's coach. "And then afterwards I was surrounded by all these people hugging me and saying 'Good job! Good job!' And that was really encouraging, because I was not expecting that at all."
Adams is excited to see where the team will go in the future.
At the moment, the POMS team is sticking with home games, due to the commitment required to travel around with the team.
Unlike a cheerleading squad, a POMS team will perform dance routines only at halftimes. They won't cheer throughout the game. They also perform only at basketball and football games, though Adams is optimistic that more opportunities may arise as the team grows. And crowds can expect new routines as the semester goes on.
"The most I want to repeat the same routine is twice. I want to keep it fresh. I want to give people a reason to come to games and that's to see a new routine or a more exciting routine. So I'd expect a new routine in the next couple of weeks, for sure," Adams said.
The bar has been set for an incredible team. And that team is looking to expand.
"I think the ideal number for the team, I would love . . . to have 15 girls," Adams said. "However, I'm only gonna take as much talent as I see."
Auditions are tomorrow from 1-4 p.m. in the KSAC aerobic room. The audition process consists of an application, performing a brief dance that will be taught at the audition and a one-on-one interview with Adams.
#thatawkwardmomentwhen you're filling out your application to Taylor Poms and you see it's for women ONLY #titleIX #injustice #tayloru- Lucas Sweitzer (@lucassweitzer) March 19, 2013
"I'm not warming you guys up before, so I'd suggest for girls to come like 15 minutes early just to warm up, stretch, do whatever you need to do, and then we're gonna jump right into choreography. If anything it should be a fun atmosphere, cause that's what practices are like, they're very fun," Adams said.
The current team started practicing right after auditions last spring. They took the summer off but came to school a week early, where they practiced for hours every day, working in The Well, learning choreography and stretching.
"It was kind of overwhelming at first, seeing the choreography and stuff, but (Abby) is a very good teacher, so don't get overwhelmed at first and come in with a really positive attitude," encouraged sophomore team member Sydney Lewis.
Sophomore Selena Cucuta also strongly encourages people to audition. "It's an awesome thing to do. It's a really awesome way to take advantage of the fact that we can dance now."
