Xavier pom squad dancing to nationals

CEDAR RAPIDS - Poms is more than just dancing during the football games and silly sacks routines.

Xavier's Pom team has been working hard and will head to nationals this month in Orlando, Fla. Despite qualifying almost every year, the team's financial goal is to make the trip to nationals every other year. The Pom team attended the United Dance Association camp this summer, where it received eligibility to participate in nationals.

'We qualify every year. It's not very hard to qualify,” sophomore Sidney Scott said.

The Xavier Pom girls have had to come up with creative ideas to raise money for the trip.

'After Kernels baseball games we had to clean the stadium,” Scott said. 'This was kind of gross.”

For some of the members of the team, this will not be their first time going to nationals. Senior Erin Foley competed at nationals her freshman and sophomore year.

'Making it to finals my freshman year was the most surreal thing that could have happened,” Foley said.

At nationals, the 10 girls will compete in the small varsity pom and jazz categories against nationally known teams. The last day of the trip is a free day where the team gets to spend the day at Disney World.

In preparation for nationals and other competitions, the team practices three times a week, four on weeks with weekend competitions, for two hours. All of the girls on the team attend dance studios outside of poms and sometimes end up dancing up to five hours every day.

Scott is concerned other students are not aware how much work really goes into being on the dance team.

'Most people think poms is just dancing at the football games, but it's actually a lot harder than that,” Scott said.