The Poms squad was not getting much Valentine’s love from the judges on Feb. 14 at the MCPS Pompon Championships held at Richard Montgomery High School.


Despite promising early season success, the girls were not able to place at counties. The team placed at their first competition of the season at Blake High School and managed to place fourth in their second competition which took place at Northwest High School.

“It was really disappointing not placing at counties,” said senior captain Tavi LaBarge. “We worked so hard, and I felt that we did the best of our abilities, despite the judges.”

At competitions, judging is based on creativity, originality, sharpness, energy, placement and technique.

The girls chose a challenging routine to display for the judges and feel this might be one the reasons they were not able to place.

“The part of our routine that I really enjoyed was how hard and fast the pace was,” said senior captain Becca Goldsmith. “It made it harder to make yourself look good and synchronized, which is why we had a harder time placing then when we used the easy routines and choreography.”

Even though the team was not able to do as well as they hoped at counties, they feel that they have come a long way since the start of the school year, and they have a very bright future with a strong sophomore class who will only get better next year.