Poms team has canceled this year’s tryouts due to Covid-19. Like most sports this year, there won’t be any seasons during the fall. Though everyone is hopeful they can resume playing and performing during the spring as more vaccines are continuing to be found.

  According to Pfizer Inc., COVID-19 vaccine tests are 95% effective in its pivotal study and showed signs of being safe.

  Gabriella Quaresima, sophomore, would love to have a Poms season when everything is safe and ready.

  “Well of course I would love one (season), but with everything going on it may be better if it doesn’t happen. Hopefully, that can change in the next few months! I’m just grateful I still have some high school years left,” Quaresima said.

  This year everyone has been affected by Covid 19, whether it is because they had the virus or they had to deal with the restrictions placed because of the virus.

  “There are other obvious changes that have impacted us because of COVID, like pushing our Fall season to the Spring, which affects the team quite a bit,” poms coach, Amber Stambaugh said.

  “Typically we get to have a feel for the team and the members and how they work during that Fall season, then when we choose our competitive team. This year, we’ve jumped right into having a competitive team,” Stambaugh said.

  Although vaccines are being crafted, many people are still contracting this deadly disease.

  “We have had a couple of individual instances where our dancers or coaches have had to quarantine because of exposure. It definitely affects the team when we rely on individuals to be there and practicing. Unfortunately, these instances are out of our control sometimes and it is just something that we have to overcome and find a solution.”Stambaugh said. “Now, with the new mitigations and the closures that start November 20th, indoor athletics are on pause until further notice. We are hoping to have somewhat of a season…because this team has worked so hard and they are SO talented and dedicated.”

  Competitive dance in high school has been compared to cheerleading.

  “Cheerleaders are good in their own way but it’s not the same as dance. We may not be throwing bodies in the air, but we still train extremely hard and work very hard,” Kaiyah Bergthold, sophomore, said.

  “I think a lot of people think they are the same thing. Cheerleading takes a lot of effort and I give full props to them they are amazing. Poms is more dance and we portray more of the visual art and entertainment and we use the actual pom-poms more on the sideline,” Gabriella Quaresima, sophomore, said. “Cheer is a lot of stunts and crazy talented flips and tricks. They are similar but not the same.”

  While their season may be on hold the Poms team is more than ready to get back to performing and doing what they love the most: to dance.

  To some dancing is a way to express oneself. A way to describe how one’s feeling without words, but simply movement.

  “I definitely feel as though I can express myself when I dance because the moves show how I’m feeling deep down and dance is just an escape from everything,” Amelia Perona, sophomore, said.

  The purpose of dance is to express one’s emotions physically. To let the feelings kept inside reach out of the surface through movement.

  “I feel like dancing is a much easier way to truly let out any sort of emotion. It really helps me relieve stress when I dance and it can be really therapeutic,” Kaiyah Bergthold, sophomore, said.

  Not everyone can dance, just like not everyone can be a football player. One must have a passion for dance and work hard.

  “I was in fifth grade when I started dance classes. I think I realized that I loved dance way before that though when Paula Abdul and MC Hammer videos started on MTV. I think it is just such a cool way to express music and make it come to life,” Stambaugh, said.

  Passions can be found by more than just social influences on TV, but from family and dance classes as well.

  “My passion for dance quickly began right after I was put into my first class when I was two years old. My parents always said I would dance around my house and never stop,” Perona said.

  For some, dance is their calling and what they were meant to do in life.

  “I was on the Varsity Poms Team my freshman year of high school, which was still in the 90’s and I hated it,” Stambaugh recalls, “I was a trained dancer and wanted to make a career of it when I got out of high school and poms wasn’t my jam, at all.”

  Once Stambaugh got older the world of dance slowly began to evolve.

  “As my freshman year of college came around, my dance team had quickly begun to change.  My coach from freshman year, called me and said that she needed someone that could help with choreography. I started helping where I could, and I ended up loving that part of it!”

  “I have never fallen out of love with it,” Stambaugh stated, “Even though I took a break when I had my children. I have always wanted to teach high school and coach the dance team, somewhere…and I am so happy I landed here and became a WILDCAT!” Stambaugh said.