Spending the week in Orlando, Florida for Nationals has been an important part of the Irish Pom experience for the last three years. While in the sunshine state, the team not only took third in the Dance Team Union’s National championship, but grew closer through shared time and competition.
Throughout the trip, team members stayed together, practiced together and competed together, leaving everything they had worked for out on the mat. Leading up to Nationals, Pom practiced almost every day for hours at a time.
“We would have some six-hour practices on weekends and practiced most of the week,” sophomore Halle Horton said. “We would do all of our dances at least once, full out.”
Preparing for such a big stage, the team continued practice even during the recent snow days.
“We practiced a ton last semester and this past month,” senior Ashley Watts said. “Even with the virtual days pushing us back, we were all still willing to send in videos and practice at home.”
For many on the team, rooming together in the hotel and being with friends every day allowed them to make tons of lifelong memories.
“My favorite memory was probably competing in the Spirit Showdown together because that has been our most successful routine so far this season,” junior Katelyn Guadalupe said. “Getting to watch the playback and be really proud of what we did as a team was so rewarding.”
Another memory for the girls was time spent while traveling and breaks from competition.
“Outside of competing and practicing, we would do team lunches,” freshman Lauren Lucky said. “One day we went shopping but most days we would chill in the hotel.”
Off the mat, many of the girls went to Universal Orlando Resort after hours on the last night to enjoy their time together and celebrate the end of another season.
“We always have fun at the exclusive Universal after hours event,” head coach Tasha Hinex said. “They close the park for just the participants of Nationals and it’s so much fun as a team.”
Not only did the team have fun competing for the last time this year, it placed well overall, breaking a program record with each routine and scoring the highest it ever had before.
“We took six routines to nationals, and four out of the six routines either had a top-five finish or top-10 finish,” Hinex said. “All of our routines made program history by doing better than we’ve ever done before, and I truly think finding out how close our scores were to the top spot for each of the routines made everything even better.”
