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The Poms season started back in August, but their competition season started rolling on Oct. 26. The Niles West News had a chance to chat with the Varsity Poms coach, Alexandra Bedoya and a couple of their captains about their start of the season.
This year is Bedoya’s second year as head coach and also her fourth year in the program. She learned to never expect the same team, personalities, or technical training. The varsity poms lost many talented and experienced seniors setting them at a slight disadvantage this year.
“The dancers really pushed themselves as well as their team members to step out of their comfort zones to take on the role of the experienced dancer,” Bedoya said.
This year, the poms team is taking on new approaches for the new season to get ready for competition. Both JV and Varsity meet once a month on a scheduled Saturday from 9:oo a.m. to 11:30 a.m. to focus on flexibility and technique.
The dancers pull their own weight during each performance with their own strength and style that attributes to the teams success.
“We have our leaders such as seniors Vanessa Pelinkovic, Cindy Son, and Elizabeth Clair that were chosen by myself as well as their teammates to be team captains. They are the ones that give their teammates that extra hard push and direction,” Bedoya said.
You may see the poms performances at the pep assemblies or during halftime at the football or basketball games. All of their performances are choreographed solely by the team. They work hard practicing their performances every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
“I’m a little nervous and stressed out, but so excited for the team this year. The team is awesome and we’ve all gotten closer and everyone is doing extremely well,” junior Kara Pomer said.
The Niles West Poms team will compete on Sunday, Dec. 13 at Bremen High school and Saturday, Jan. 9 at Andrew High School. They will be changing up their style a bit by dancing to new songs rather than usual hip hop songs. The Poms team is also looking to go to state for the first time in Poms history and hope to win their next two competitions.
“I have the confidence in them, they’ve done so much work to grow and get to where they are today, that I can’t see why we can’t place and be up there with the other teams in our conference,” Bedoya said.
Although the competitions are important to the team, they are also looking forward to their small performances at West.
“I believe that at some point, Niles West will be a dance team that people will recognize as a strong and competitive team. I’m very excited to see how we do this competitive season,” Bedoya said.
The Pommers are looking promising this season, and want to be competitive. Good luck girls!
Contributions made by Katherine Khoury and Bradley Pawlow
