Throughout the school year, poms are practicing to become the best team they can be and to achieve that they need a fearless leader. Senior Grace Coyne has been in poms for four years and she is planning to go out with a successful year as the team captain. She understands the work that is required to be in poms and believes a lot of people overlook that work. 

“We practice a lot more than I think people realize. We usually average around 3 hours a day, with the addition of long Saturday practices and morning training. Our choreography days this year even lasted 12 hours,” Coyne said

Many hours of work are required to be the best and poms are focused year round. Coyne has different responsibilities as the captain and her energy reflects the whole team’s mood. 

“As the captain, it’s important that I always come in to practice in a good mood and get my team motivated. Throughout practices it’s my responsibility to keep our energy and effort high, and to encourage my team when they need it. It’s also important that I help build our team culture and am there for my team as a friend and teammate,” Coyne said. 

By having the best energy in the group she leads the entire team to have a good attitude for the rest of the day. She must be the example for the team and that is a big responsibility. 

“I put in work to help create team bonding’s and get us engaged in community service. Being a captain is also a lot of work just because I want to set a certain expectation for the team and be a good role model,” Coyne said. 

When the bar is set high because of Coyne, the rest of the team follows. Being a senior, she has had different goals set and has put a certain bar for herself. 

“After doing poms for 4 years, it’s really wild to see all the growth our program has undergone. Our placements at state continue to improve and we attended nationals for the first time last year. After being on the team for so long, it’s all worth it to see our improvements and hard work paying off,” Coyne said. 

The improvements over the year have been very clear and Coyne only hopes to continue the legacy for the poms team. 

“This year I’m most excited to hopefully keep improving and building our program’s name. Seeing even more results from all our efforts would be the best way to end my senior year, because I want to end strong,” Coyne said.

The poms team puts in the hours and is constantly improving. They have big goals this season and Coyne is going to push the team to be the best they can be