Harlow Bidwell ‘28, Opinion Editor
As the football season comes to an end, so do the South Lyon Pom teams’ performances on Friday nights. Accompanyingly, the High Kick season concludes, with the competition taking place on Nov. 2, where both junior varsity and varsity competed their routines in the large division of the morning and afternoon schedules of the event. The teams also kicked off their competition season this month—tryouts occurred on Nov. 4 and 6.
Over the summer, both teams went to the MidAmerican Pom Pon camp, hosted at Alma College, and learned three routines to perform at football and basketball games. Varsity performed two of the routines at the football games this fall: “One, Two Step”, and “Got Your Number”. They also performed two other routines, one being “Abracadabra”, thanks to the collegiate pom team, Atomic Pom, who came in and taught them the routine over the summer. Varsity continuously performs a throwback routine every year at the homecoming game, this year being “Like a Boy”. The tradition is a team favorite, and manage to fit in learning these routines each year. The choice routes from the routines learned at the current seniors, freshman year camp.
On Thursday nights, some may have seen the JV girls’ performance during halftime. The girls had also learned three routines at the MidAmerican camp: “Yes I Can, Looking at Me”, and “Bump”. Coaches Sasha Ujkaj and Sidney Martin additionally taught the team “Crazy Train”, which happens to also be a throwback routine, but was not performed for JV’s homecoming game. Sophomore Krista Hatch said, “I love being able to bond together as a team, especially with the team dinners and team bondings we have, the community we’ve made this year just shows when we perform.” While the teams finished up last minute cleaning and drilling, they prepared for High Kick.
The High Kick season began in September and came to its end in early November, with their competition concluding it. Both teams were thrilled to share the routines they spent hours of blood, sweat, and tears on. Varsity performed their “Jewelry Store Shoppers” routine and took home third place. While JV performed a “Lions Daycare” routine and received second place.
High Kick is very different from the typical Pom routine, from choreography to even practices. Each performance must have a minimum of 45 kicks, while routines such as a camp—performed at football and basketball games—or states routine have around only four eight counts worth of kicks, equal to around 16 kicks. Teams are judged on difficulty, height, and form of kicks, unity, technique, showmanship, choreography, and overall impression. Last year, South Lyon took home first place in the Large Varsity Division with their Wizard of Oz themed routine for the second time in school history. In the JV division, they took third place with the crocodile hunters routine, primarily based on Steve Irwin’s legacy
Additionally, the divisions for this competition look a little different than the average competition. Middle school and JV teams compete in two divisions—Small and Large—depending on team size, but varsity’s schedule looks slightly different. With varsity performing in the afternoon while JV is in the morning, they have three divisions: Small, Medium, and Large. South Lyon Varsity typically competes in the Large division, and has for the past decade. The girls do not have to qualify for this competition, unlike States.
While the girls prepare for the next few months, the information-based judging and scoring need to stay in mind. In order to qualify for States, three certified judges score each team individually and then compare their scores to get one ultimate result at Regionals in January. Middle school and JV teams must receive at least 70 percent of the total possible points to qualify for states. For Varsity, teams must receive a 75 percent of total possible points. With qualifying for the competition, they also have to compete for the division they will ultimately place in next Feb. JV only has two divisions they could qualify in —DI and DII, needing to score between 70-74 percent for a DII spot, and a 74.5 and higher for a DI spot. This is opposed to varsity, which has four separate divisions, but doesn’t completely depend on scoring. Class C/D and B depend on the sizes of your school and team. These classes have the smallest student bodies competing. Classes A DI and DII are the largest student bodies, and they depend on the scoring of the teams, along with amount. To compete in DII, teams have to receive a range of 75-79 percent. In order to fit into the DI of this class, teams must receive an average of 79.5 or above.
As the winter season comes to a start, memories of the past routines come back to mind. This year at states, Varsity took third place from their Super Bowl Sunday inspired routine, and JV took first place for the second time in their history, with their telephone-themed routine. The states/winter season goes from November all the way to February. Tryouts for the competitive season start the week after High Kick ends, this year were on Nov. 4 and 6. Both teams practice every Tuesday and Thursday, sometimes adding Saturday practice to build stamina, and to fight for a first place spot next year at states. Sophomore Dasie Walker said, “I love the state season for the difficulty of our routines. I always love adding stunts and hard choreo, that’s what made states this year so much fun and truly gave us a reason to want to win.”
Furthermore, both teams have had great success so far with their trip to camp, High Kick, and are excited as they take their trip to regionals and states coming up. Freshman Katelynn Shelburne said, “I’m excited to be on a team with my friends from dance and to perform with my sister for her senior year. Everything is all new to me, coming from just doing dance my whole life, so States is an experience I cannot wait for.” Overall, all the girls love to share the experience of Pom and the thrill and excitement of it, especially with those who are not familiar with the sport special to Michigan. Soon, the teams will perform at the boys and girls basketball games, so do not forget to congratulate your classmates in Pom on their hard work this year.
Lyon Life 