On Saturday Jan. 28, HHS Poms traveled to Illinois State University to compete for the Poms state competition. Having never placed at the IHSA State competition, the team was excited to prove how much hard work and dedication had gone into their routine. The team qualified for the state competition by securing a second place trophy at sectionals.

“It really takes friendship and trust to make a great team,” head coach Christine Amling said. “They developed a strong bond as the season went on and had set one main goal.”

Since the beginning of the season, their routines had been placing in the top five. They even walked away with a few first, second, and third place trophies at ISHA invites.

“We would take the judges score sheets and make the corrections they had suggested,” Amling said. “We wanted state so bad and set our goal high.”

On the first day of the competition, the team was shocked to have placed fourth, which moved them on to the final day. The squad had reached their goal, to make day 2 of state.

After giving it their all in their performance on Sunday, their dreams came true as they sat down for awards and walked away with a second place trophy out of the entire state.

“The girls never imagined moving up to second on day two,” Amling said. “We just knew we were in fourth and went back the next day even harder and stronger than the first.”

Principal Scott Rowe saw the news and tweeted out a congratulations to the squad and announced the celebratory pep assembly. The pep assembly was held in the east gym during 3rd period, for the whole school to attend. Each member of the team was introduced individually and the girls handed a rose to both of their coaches. Finally, the squad performed their second place routine in front of the school for the last time.

As for the future, the team will lose six seniors, but Coach Amling is hopeful about next year.

“We have a strong junior class moving up,” Amling said. “We want to make sure we stay focused and raise the bar even higher than in the past and continue to work hard.”

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