The rest of the competition season is just around the corner, and it will take place on a stage with bright lights, loud speakers, and the prepared Cherokee Trial Poms teams. But how the students involved in poms prepare will be crucial to how the public perceives them and how they represent CT. The Poms team has participated in many competitions; most recently taking first place in the Colorado regional competition and preparing the team to compete at the national level in Feb. 2023.

Although the team is gearing up for nationals, many believe it’s more important to train mentally more than to prepare physically, “I mentally prepare myself by knowing what’s going on in that practice and knowing what I should be doing before and after practice.” Says Kallie Shenk, a Freshman on Varsity Poms. Having a good mindset walking into practice and leaving practice can shape the amount of motivation the dancer has and can reflect onto the practices in the upcoming future, as well as competitions to come.

Coach, Mia Brown, has devoted her time and energy to creating lengthy, in depth, aesthetically pleasing routines for the team to represent Cherokee Trail, “Our season starts in April with tryouts and then we learn our competitive dances in the summer, and we prepare by practicing and cleaning during practice.” Says Coach Brown. The practice and preparation process takes several hours every week and takes place over the course of several months. The team practices every day after school, and on top of practicing for their competition routines they perform at basketball games, football games, and other extracurricular activities at CT. 

The Cherokee Trail Poms Team has a lot of stress on them during competitions, or “comps” for short, as well as during state. Ella Leigh talked about how her and her team manage stress before a competition, “We have little things we do as a team, We send out little messages to each other like ‘You got this’, ‘So proud of you!’ I feel like we keep a good energy throughout the team to really keep those levels down,”. High stress levels can be common among athletes and giving their teammates support has seemed to be a great method to reduce their stress. 

The Cherokee Trail students, staff, and community can support the Poms teams, both JV and Varsity, by promoting their events on social media, attending their events, and cheering them on as they enter the stage for Nationals coming up in February of 2023.