With their debut year almost over, the Poms Dance Team has brought electrifying energy and more spirit to Jesuit home games. 

The team has been in the works for a couple years, according to Activities Director Lauren Lakey, but was finally started this year as Jesuit found a facility to practice as well as a coach. 

While the dance team is classified as an activity by OSAA, not a sport, this doesn’t stop the team from putting in a ton of work to make the dance team’s first year special. 

“Most of the girls on the team, if not all of them, are studio dancers, which means that we have rehearsals Monday through Friday, four to nine. That’s why we have [practice] before school on Tuesday and after school on Friday, because typically, that’s when we’re open,” junior Susie O’Mahony said. 

Many schools around Oregon have dance teams. Out of the 50 OSAA 6A schools, 34 of them have dance teams, not including Jesuit. Last school year, Lake Oswego won best in Poms. This year, Jesuit will not be competing in state due to the team’s late start, but are hopeful to start competing as soon as next year. 

“We want to [compete] in future years, but this year with how late we started, we’ve kind of already missed that deadline, but we definitely want to in future years, as soon as next year even,” O’Mahony said. 

The Poms Dance Team is under the umbrella of the cheer team, but is entirely different as they focus on performing choreographed routines during halftime of sports events and assemblies. Conversely, the cheer team performs continuously on the sideline of sports games and interacts directly with the crowd to encourage spirit. 

Another aspect that differentiates them from the cheer team is that they don’t have flyers, cheerleaders who are tossed in the air and caught. 

“Our tricks are mainly flexibility based and tumbling, and it’s all dance,” junior Morgen Dunne said. 

Jesuit hired Mari Juras to coach the new Poms team. She’s worked with Portland Ballet Company and is currently an instructor at Elevate dance. Juras started to take dance more seriously in high school with her school’s dance team. 

“I was part of my high school’s dance team from my freshman through junior year. Our team had around 20 individuals and competed in Jazz, Contemporary, and Show Divisions,” Juras said. 

She continued her professional dance career in college while working toward a Bachelor of Science Degree. 

“During my college years, I danced professionally with different dance companies. This took me around the U.S. and abroad,” Juras said. 

As Juras herself danced on a Poms team in high school, she’s excited to bring her love of the sport to a new generation of girls. 

“It is always exciting to be part of something new. Because this team has come together in a short amount of time, the support from the Jesuit Administration, staff, and the student body has helped us immensely,” she said. 

Juras is busy as the coach of this team. She works to make sure everything is in order for the team so they can perform to their full potential.

“As do many of Jesuit’s sports and activity coaches, I work on prepping the team for games, booking space to practice in, making sure each participant has the necessary equipment, checking in with individuals, working on technical skills, coordinating schedules, emailing, and filling out paperwork. If you’re an athlete reading this and haven’t thanked your coach recently; do it,” she said. 

The team has faced a couple challenges, but nothing they couldn’t overcome. These challenges have only made the team stronger. 

“Typically, [the team would] start more in the summer, when all the other fall sports start, but because it’s our first year and we got kind of a later start, we kind of just had to jump into choreography, jump into performing,” O’Mahony said. 

Juras is appreciative of all the work the girls have put in. The team has blossomed under the difficulties of starting late, and Juras couldn’t be happier with the results of their efforts. 

“The team has done a wonderful job learning dance material, practicing, and performing. Starting later than a team normally would, we have had to learn dances in a very short amount of time. Each of the routines you see, the team has learned the choreography in two hours or less,” Juras said. 

Juras trusts in the team and their ability to thrive. The smaller team size is not an obstacle, even if most high school Dance Teams are ten or more girls. 

“We are a smaller team than those you usually see at other schools,” Juras said. “This is not a disadvantage in any way. Having a smaller team wasn’t necessarily planned; just how it turned out to be this year. I’m sure as the program grows, the team size will grow as well.” 

The girls love their seven person team, as they’ve had the opportunity to get to know each other better and grow close. 

“I really like that our team is small because I think it’s setting a good foundation. And all of us come from a good dance background of competing. So I think we have a really good start with that, and we’ve been able to get really close as a team because of how small our team is,” said sophomore Charlotte Molloy. 

One reason why the team is small is because of the rigorous tryouts the team had. The girls who tried out had to learn choreography quickly to perform in front of a panel of judges. The girls who made it on the team all were used to this style of auditions, and that, along with their background in dance, helped them make the team. 

“At auditions we had guest judges score and evaluate various technical skills and performance qualities. The audition process for Pom Dance was difficult; everyone who attended the tryouts worked extremely hard,” Juras said. 

Right now, the team only has one level of performance, due to the fact that having a background in dance is an important factor. 

“It is definitely tailored for people who do competition dance already and are already pretty advanced. So it’s kind of like a varsity sport, where if you try it out for varsity basketball, they wouldn’t be having to teach you how to shoot a three pointer or how to guard. So it’s not like we’re learning new skills, it’s more arranging and showing how to perfect them on stage,” O’Mahony said. 

Eventually, Juras hopes the team can expand so more people have the opportunity to join. 

“As of right now, due to numbers and schedule conflicts like dancers’ schedules, space availability, and limited practice times, we cannot offer a secondary team. But that is not to say it will never happen! It’s something for us as a school to consider but not at this time,” she said. 

Juras loves seeing the girls execute the dances they put so much work into. She’s very proud of all the work the girls have put in.

“I’m always excited to see the girls perform for the school. They work so hard in Pom Dance practices and dance classes at their private studios. To see them be able to share their love of dance with others is always rewarding,” Juras said. “We are still technically a pilot program for the school. So right now the focus is on having the program ‘survive’ and continue into the next school year versus expanding to have an additional team.” 

As no seniors tried out for the Poms Dance Team, leadership roles have fallen to the three juniors. Claire Scott, Morgen Dunne, and Susie O’Mahony are the junior leaders of the team. 

“Yeah, I’m really excited [to lead the team]. There’s a couple other girls that are also upperclassmen, and we’ve become friends and bonded really quickly, and I love hanging out with the younger girls, too,” junior Claire Scott said. 

The juniors all have been dancing since they were young, and joined the team to further their knowledge of dance, specifically Poms, to have a better chance of dancing in college. They have loved performing for the student body at games and assemblies. 

“I think the best part of having the new team at Jesuit is just to give the school more spirit. And I like dancing at the assemblies, because I think they really pump up the school,” Scott said. 

They are all excited to be the leaders of the team, ready to help the team grow and thrive in its first year at Jesuit. 

“I’m going to help this team grow by pushing everyone to be the best they can be and encouraging a solid team dynamic, team bonding, and making sure everyone’s in the right mindset,” Dunne said. 

They’ve set goals for the team to achieve in their first year, and as leaders of the team, they’re prepared to help the team accomplish these goals. 

“My goal for the team for the first year is just to be successful with our planning logistics, being ready on time, and having the routines look good and clean for performances,” Scott said. 

Since dance is time consuming, the juniors are excited to be a part of a school sport, as they haven’t had the opportunity previously. 

“I really wanted to be part of a school sport and [be a part of] a team at Jesuit because Jesuit is so successful with all their athletics,” O’Mahony said. 

Their late start did not stop the team from performing during the halftime of the Mountainside, Sunset, and West Salem home football games. 

“The first [performance] we didn’t really know everything about what we were doing, but I think [during the Sunset game], we were more ready to go, and I think it went really well,” sophomore Reese Geunes said. 

The younger members of the Poms Dance Team are just as excited to start the first generation of the team at Jesuit. 

“I think it’s cool that [Jesuit’s] starting something new, and I’m glad to be part of the first group to [join the team],” freshman Annie Wegner said. 

Freshman Hannah Macielinski was excited to join this team and try something new. 

“Well I wanted to try something [new], obviously, with high school, wanting to reach out and branch out and try new things,” Macielinski said. 

The younger girls have been prepared well by the junior leaders, who have made sure they are ready for practices and performances.

“Yeah, I think [the juniors] definitely make sure we know when practices are, sometimes they’ll drive me to practice and help and make sure that we’re down in the room on time,” Geunes said. 

The girls have already made goals for what they want the team to accomplish this first year. 

“I think definitely getting everyone to know what [the Poms Team is] about. So like making things look good, but also getting into the community,” Geunes said. 

The Poms Team has done a great job integrating themselves into the Jesuit community, having performed at the Homecoming and the Fall and Winter Spirit assemblies. The girls also have made goals for themselves individually to help the team be the best it can possibly be. 

“[I want] to improve myself and work as a team player. So if everyone needs me to practice at home, then practicing at home,” Geunes said. 

The girls had to put in a lot of work going into the winter season as performing for football and basketball games are completely different. 

“Basketball is such a different sport and crowd dynamic from football. I think football is fun because you’re outside and in front of the whole stadium, but basketball is a little bit more intimate, and we’re more used to dancing on hardwoods, rather than turf. And so we’re able to do more tricks and perform more styles, other than just gameday Poms,” O’Mahony said. 

Their coach is confident in the girls’ abilities to perform on any surface, so the change they made from performing on turf to the basketball court won’t make a huge difference. 

“These dancers have grown up performing on various surfaces and often can make quick adjustments without changing the choreography,” Juras said. 

Their coach was right, and the first performance on the basketball court went very well. 

“It was very successful. We performed a new hip hop dance for the basketball halftime show for Jesuit versus Lake Oswego, and we also had new outfits, which was very exciting,” Scott said. 

The Poms Team does not have a spring season due to not having a specific sport to perform for. Spring is also competition season for dancers, so the team will be very busy performing for their studios. However, they would love to perform at an assembly if Jesuit asks them to. The Jesuit Poms Dance Team may be new this year, but they’ve had a strong start and are ready to continue thriving at Jesuit for years to come.