Photo courtesy of Jennifer Siegel

At 5:45 p.m., Helen Morse, sophomore and JV poms captain, sat in the audience at St. Charles High School for the St. Charles Classic award ceremony praying she would hear ‘Kirkwood’ announced as victorious.

Her prayer was answered when the KHS JV pommies were awarded first place.

“We were all just really excited,” Morse said. “We all jumped up and screamed and hugged each other. We had worked for this and we were just hoping and praying that they would call us as first place.”

This was the first time KHS JV pommies have competed. They found out about the dance in August, learned the routine before Christmas and practiced it throughout all of January.

“They were well prepared, and they knew the dance,” Jennifer Siegel, JV poms head coach, said. “It was all committed to memory. They were nervous, but at the same time, when it was time to perform, they were spot on. They were ready to go, and gave it their all.”

For the St. Charles Classic, the JV pommies performed a routine they had danced at several basketball games prior to the competition. Siegel said there was a moment of realization during the routine where she knew they had a good chance to win.

“There is a part of a routine where they do some lifts,” Siegel said. “It’s very precise. They have two counts to get them up and get them back down. All the lifts hit perfectly. At that exact moment I knew we were in good shape.”

To start off the day, the JV pommies got on a bus at 7:45 a.m. and drove to St. Charles High School. They performed at 10:45 a.m. Then they had to wait six hours for results at 5:45 p.m. Despite the long wait, Morse enjoyed the experience of the event.

“There were a bunch of different schools there and it was pretty busy, but it was a lot of fun to see the different dances people did, and also the different level of difficulty,” Morse said. “It was a lot of fun. It was definitely nerve-wracking to go up there and perform in front of a ton of people, but I really liked it.”

Siegel calls the experience the team’s proudest moment of the season. The feeling is likewise for Morse.

“I’m just really proud of my team,” Morse said. “We’ve really improved and they worked really hard for this. The girls put in a lot of effort.”

The varsity pommie squad was awarded third place in their division. Siegel said the KHS pommie program is building themselves up as elite.

“With the JV squad and the varsity squad together, we’re creating a really good reputation in St. Louis,” Siegel said. “We’re a highly competitive dance team.”