The spirit team is starting their long season with their first competitions coming up. The spirit team consists of both varsity Cheer and Song Pom teams. Most people think that they are the same team, but Cheer and Pom are very different and have their own unique ways to bring school spirit.
Cheer competes in one routine that has various elements that encapsulate the sport. A competitive cheer routine is split into three different sections: cheer, elites, and dance. This means that the routine is a jam-packed showcase of all of the diverse aspects of cheer as a sport. The routine illuminates just how synchronized the team has to be to be able to pull off the routine.
Pom, on the other hand, has two different routines. One is for the Song Pom category, and one for the Jazz category. Pom routines are high energy, dynamic routines that highlight the precision that Pom requires. The jazz routine however, is in the more traditional jazz dance style.
Both teams have guest choreographers to create amazing routines which are competed at all of the competitions. The choreographer comes in typically for Saturday and Sunday and the teams work hard for countless hours learning the routines. After choreography weekends, practice time is used to tweak and perfect the routines to ensure the team is ready to show out at competitions!
Competition season officially begins in December, but the preparations have already begun. In practice, they run the routines and make sure they are as ready as they can be to be able to represent NDB at competitions.
Gianna Beltramo, Junior Pom Co-Captain explains how the Pom team is preparing for competitions.
“We’ve been doing a lot of conditioning and we are also running our dances [many] more times per practice, which is really hard but it’s helping with our endurance,” says Beltramo. “It’s like an all day event. So you show up normally earlier to come and support cheer. Around 15 minutes before you perform you go backstage and have 10 minutes to warm up with your team…then you hit the floor and have awards for a [long time] after that”. Beltramo explains.
Adrianna Cirina, Senior Cheer Captain says “We just got our competition choreography about 2 weeks ago and we are working on perfecting that before our first competition on December 14th”.
When asked what a competition is like for the Cheer team, Cirina says “It depends on what time we are on mat, but usually call time is pretty early in the morning… like 2 hours before we compete to warm up. You have a certain amount of time in the warm up room to be on the mat to throw your stunts. So we warm up and then wait backstage, then you go…and then you wait for awards for your placement”. When asked about the team’s biggest goal, Cirina states “I think it would be making finals at nationals”.
