For senior Maya Gonzalez and her Riverside Brookfield High School competition poms teammates, the 2023-24 season of changes ended with a lofty reward.
The Bulldogs qualified for the Illinois Drill Team Association finals and finished third in AAA jazz – the program’s highest IDTA state finish in any category.
“Winning third at state was such an amazing feeling, I was really shocked, I wasn’t expecting that,” Gonzalez responded. “I knew we danced really well and we were all happy with our performance but there were a lot of good teams there, I didn’t know how we would compare. Placing third was so cool and proved to us that we could compete against some of the bigger schools.”
With several returnees, the Bulldogs already appear in position to improve upon that success.
In their first IDTA regional competition Jan. 5 in Freeport, the Bulldogs won the AAA Jazz division with an 81.1 score that already qualifies them for the IDTA state meet Feb. 15 in Springfield. The Bulldogs also placed first among the IHSA Class 2A schools.
“All the hard work and time we put in over the course of the season paid off. I think that same mindset that led to our third-place finish carried over to this season. As a team we’re striving to continue to grow and have fun,” senior Anna Pinnick said. “Because so many of us competed last year, we are eager to do as well as, if not better, this year. This has created a positive atmosphere during practices as we try to make the best version of our dance for us as a team.”
Members of the winter varsity competitive squad are senior Sofia Lee and junior Aubrey Agne as co-captains, Gonzalez, Pinnick, juniors Liv Creedon, Isabella Kirsch, Olivia Krystofiak, Sofia Miller, Liliana Nieto, Kailyn Novak, Emelia Royer and Sadie Towers and sophomores Samantha Bolt, Charlotte Caponio-Kalnes, Avery Cavaliere, Addie Segura and Annika Weekes.
Members of the performance squad, which performs at home basketball games, are co-captains Gonzalez and Pinnick, juniors Audrey Hostrawser, Liliana Nieto, and Sadie Towers, sophomores Ella Blomgren, Layla Konar, Lila Owen and Charlotte Textrum and freshmen Hannah Boyle and Elin Peterson.
It’s also the second season for both head coach Tia Sherman and junior varsity coach Meredith Harvey. The Bulldogs graduated only two seniors from the competitive team. The JV roster also has grown to 20 and participated in its first conference championships – the Upstate Eight Conference – alongside the varsity Jan. 14 at Larkin.
“One of the definite strengths of this year’s team is our closeness and how well we are able to come together on the dance floor. We are all very comfortable with each other which allows for a very cohesive dance,” Lee said. “Having so many returnees is a very nice feeling to have because a lot of us have experienced the world of competitive dance and poms and we are all growing in confidence each day we put more work in. It feels very reliable knowing a lot of our team is experienced.”
Sherman, an RBHS math teacher, also was on the RBHS poms team and member of the DePaul University dance team. She previously coached poms at Lyons Township from 2004-10. Harvey teaches special education at Hauser Junior High and was on the Illinois State University dance team.
“[2024] was a really great season. We just kind of started with a bang over the summer and the girls stepped up to the plate and worked so hard. It’s so cool the [IDTA] judges recognized their talent,” Sherman said. “We just tell them we want to take the floor and do the best they could have possibly done. Dance is very subjective. We want to just feel we did our best.”
Again this year, the Bulldogs only will participate in IDTA postseason and not IHSA. In their 2022 IDTA state debut, they finished eighth in the AAA Lyrical/Contemporary category.
Fourteen members return from the 2023 state lineup. Gonzalez, Lee, Pinnick, Agne, Kirsch, Miller, Nieto and Royer also participated in 2022.
The Bulldogs once again will focus on the jazz category and take advantage of their veteran group.
“We really like doing something a little more upbeat,” Sherman said. “The routine this year is jam-packed with a ton of technical skills and maybe almost a little harder. Growing from last year’s experience and the fact we have so many girls returning is going to hopefully make us really strong.”
The program’s first UEC Meet also proved to be a learning experience. Hoping for a top-four finish, the Bulldogs were seventh among the 14 teams (77.90) but satisfied with their efforts. The JV (69.70) was fifth of eight teams.
“We felt like we had an awesome performance. We made some changes from our last competition and they hit those well,” Sherman said.
“I feel like each time we keep achieving more and we feel more confident with each run,” Lee said. “The main goal is to do very well at state. I think (UEC) was definitely a success, even if we didn’t place as well as we wanted to.”