Leaping into competition

The Flyerettes are dancing before the Varsity boys’ basketball game versus Mason on Jan. 11. At halftime the team performed their pom routine for the first time. The next day they competed this dance at Seton High School. Photo courtesy of McDaniel’s Photography.

The OASSA regional competition is days away and the Flyerettes are pulling all the stops to have their dances ready for Feb. 2. At this competition is where the Flyerettes hope to qualify for state.

“Longer practices are needed to make changes and perfect our pom and hip-hop dance for formations and changing some moves,” said Ashley McNamara, Flyerettes coach. “The girls have worked so hard to get to this point.”

The team is taking one hip-hop and one pom dance to Springboro High School. They have competed and performed both dances prior. They competed at Seton High School Invitational to experience a competition and getting prepared for it.

It was the first time the Flyerettes have competed a pom routine. A pom dance is stiff motions using pom poms.

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“Our goal is to make it to state in Columbus on Mar. 1 and 2. I feel that the judges at Seton gave us the critiques we needed to improve. ,” said Katie Pruitt, 12.

The girls have learned these dances in Sept. and Oct. to make sure they are perfected for now. An outside choreographer made the hip-hop dance and Kenzie Wall, assistant coach and student teacher made the pom.

“I made the dance based on visuals and how the judges would see it form where they would be sitting,” said Wall.

“I’m excited for this competition, we have worked hard all season wanting to qualify for state and putting on a good performance for the school,” said Calista Robbins, 10.

Giving it their all in practice is important but leaving nothing after performing for the judges will get them to state.

About the Contributor

Lauren Kurtzer, Creative Projects Director

Hi! My name is Lauren Kurtzer and I am a senior here at SHS; thus making it my fourth year in convergence journalism. Looking back on everything I learned and done in room 115, I can not believe it went by that quickly. Being on the staff of The Leaf I have picked up many skills on writing, design, and leadership that I can take to the future. I learned many of those skills through leadership positions of feature chief sophomore year; associate editor junior year, where I made sure articles are up to AP Style; creative projects director this year, I am part of a team that works on the major cover stories like the crazy election. I have written and designed for all four of our platforms. For the past three years, I have also written a sports column on every issue; I cover the morale issues of the NFL and my teams the Reds, Bengals and Buckeyes. Outside of room 115, I am the co-captain of the dance team I have been on for four years, the Flyerettes. I am also heavily involved in the Jewish community. I am the Programming Vice President for my temple’s youth group, which is a part of NFTY Ohio Valley, and the Social Action Programmer for Young Judaea Midwest youth movement. On Sundays, I am a madricha or assistant teacher at my Religious School.