The Titan poms started off their competition season with a first place finish at the UVA dance competition held at GBS. The girls are working hard this year to beat last year’s scores, according to head coach Julie Smith. During the 2015 competition season, varsity finished in eleventh place in Poms and thirteenth place in Jazz, while the JV team finished at twenty-third place in the state. The 2016 GBS competition season started on Nov. 13 and continues through January.

According to Smith, she is pleased with the team’s progress so far this season, as the poms placed top two in their first couple competitions.

“Our varsity team has been performing extremely well,” Smith said. “We placed first in both categories at our first competition and we took second last weekend at the Lake Zurich competition.  The girls have a very beautiful jazz piece this year that really highlights their talent.”

According to Smith, the team is striving for perfection this season.

“Dance team is about perfection,” Smith said. “Every day you are fighting for strong technique, flawless execution all while making sure to perform with passion and confidence.  We work every day to make all these pieces fit together in hopes of a great performance.”

JV coach Danya Parenti, enjoys both the competition and and football season greatly because they both give the girls special opportunities. But, according to Parenti, she loves them  for different reasons. She believes the football season is time for fun and enjoying and familiarizing yourself with the GBS community, while the competition season is meant more for growth in both technique and performance level.

“There is nothing like the competition season,” Parenti said. “We are just pushing ourselves really hard and a lot of growth happens, which is just cool to see that growth, from our routine in the beginning and what our team looks like at the beginning of the competition season to what it looks like at the end. It’s really cool, and there’s just that added pressure to push ourselves.”

Senior captain Bailey Burke agrees that competition and football seasons have distinct characteristics.

“They’re so different and it’s hard to compare the two,” Burke said. “Football season is a lot of fun and relaxing dances,  even though we’re learning dances everyday. During competition season, we kick it into high gear and we practice for like three hours everyday every day and have competitions every weekend so poms becomes my life during the competition season, but it’s still a lot of fun and I love it so much,”