Watkins Mill poms are best known for their halftime performances during the football and basketball season. They practice their dance routines everyday to perfection until it’s showtime.

And all that hard work paid off when the poms competed on Saturday at Northwest High School and took home the spirit award, second place for overall performance, and third place for the captain award for senior Sandra Bazubwabo.

To get rid of all their pre-competition nerves, the “pommies” decided to have a spirit week leading up to their competition. It started with pajama day on Monday, hippie day on Tuesday, back to the 90’s on Wednesday, character day on Thursday, and formal Friday.

Even with spirit week, the pommies still had to prepare themselves, both at home and at practice.

“I stretch at home and I listen to the music like everyday,” sophomore Dariana Girao said. “We’re all getting to know each other like more and we work together better.”

Competition day finally arrived and the girls all had a mixture of emotions. Freshman Taylor Dawson was a little nervous because she was expecting “a bunch of people” to show up–and she was right.

The section for the WMHS students was filled entirely and they had cheers prepared to “out cheer” Northwood High School. The girls performed their routine and Orange Nation cheered during the entire performance.

Bazubwabo, who has been in five competitions including this one, was really happy with how their performance went. “It went really well. We were all  really happy when we got off the floor,” Bazubwabo said.  “They skipped our music twice… that was just something we were bummed about. But we still performed really well.”

“Watkins Mill hasn’t gotten the Spirit Award in so long,” Bazuwabo added.  “I think the last time we got it at County’s was in 2000 or something like that.”

Congratulations to all of the poms and come support them at their next competition at Blake High School on February 13.

Gallery • 19 Photos

Alexa Colindres