Human resource management sophomore Alex Brekke spent all four years of her time at Canton High School in Canton, Mich., on the varsity pompon team.
“I knew I would miss it in college, so I decided to come try out (for MSU’s team),” Brekke said.
MSU pompon wins championship
Now she is the spirit chair of a team that has made history.
Last weekend, the MSU pompon, or pom, team won its fifth consecutive Mid American Dance and High Kick Championship at Eastern Michigan University, making MSU the first team at any level to win the championship five times in a row, head coach Linda Conradi said.
“It’s definitely an honor to achieve that goal,” Conradi said. “We obviously always aim to win and to do our personal best but to have five championships under our belt is pretty impressive.”
The competition was based on 10 categories, including choreography, execution and form, formations and transitions, height of kicks and smiles and showmanship, said Mid American Pompon director Julie Hobbs-Julian.
The team — made up of 21 members and two coaches — took on the theme of fallen angels, sporting black wings while performing to a mix of dark songs, Brekke said.
Hobbs-Julian said she was impressed by the innovation and creativity the team brought to the competition.
“I would say personally, as a former coach myself, they bring something to the floor that nobody else does,” she said. “They focus on a theme which draws in audiences. They’re amazing.”
Conradi said the performances require a lot of time and work — she started working on the routine for the High Kick Championship in December 2010.
“We train all year round,” she said. “We meet through the summer. Basically, we only have a couple months off.”
Pom is a collaboration of cheering, dancing and gymnastics, but it’s unique enough not to fall under just one category.
“We do some lifting and stunts,” Brekke said. “Cheer is very vocal, but … we don’t do any talking, which makes us like dance.”
The team practices three or more days each week during a majority of the year for two major competitions — the Dance and High Kick Championship and the Mid American Pompon Championship coming up in February 2012. They also have occasional performances at tailgates and parades and perform before football games — but not on the field like the cheerleading and dance teams, Brekke said.
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“In high school, we did it for sport,” she said. “In college, we do it because we love pom.”
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