Independence’s Varsity Pomline is referred to as a dance team that performs choreographed routines during halftime and timeouts, performing during our very own boys’ and girls’ Varsity Basketball games.
The University of Arizona was the first school to catalog Pomline as a sport, making it the most popular Pomline team amongst all universities.
Pomline made its debut at Independence in the fall of 2019 with Coach Montoya being its first and only head coach since its inception. Montoya has also been appointed the dance instructor at IHS since 2014.
The Varsity Pom Coach had begun her dancing journey in her high school years. “I started dancing in high school and went on to study dance education in college,” Montoya informs. “I was also part of the GCU dance team first freshmen year of college.”
Montoya’s connection with her dance team at GCU inspired her to coach Pomline as she discovered her joy in dancing for the team, wanting to pursue that further into her career.
For anyone looking forward to becoming a future pommie, Montoya offered the tryout process: “The tryout process consists of learning a cheer and a dance that includes many of the skills we are looking for such as energy, projection, sharpness, jumps and synchronization. Candidates then perform the dance and cheer in front of a judging panel and are selected based on the judge’s scores.”
However, becoming a pommie comes with pride as it is one of the most important factors as you will be representing school spirit. “We look for student-athletes that are good role models around school /community and that are fast learners and committed to working hard all season,” the pom coach advocates.
Senior Isabella De-Leon Ponce had dabbled in dance before joining Pomline her senior year. The senior had wanted to try out for Pom her previous years but finally got the courage her last year in high school. Ponce got inspired to join Pomline after seeing how her friend, one of the Senior Captains for Pom Savanna Hernandez, enjoyed being in the sport.
“My best friend had been doing Pomline since freshman year and I loved how they danced and how the uniforms looked,” Ponce reminisces. “She always tried to get me to try out and I finally did out senior year.”
As previously mentioned, Pomline has three captains this year. The captains are: senior Veronica Angel, also one of the captains for Independence’s Spiritline, senior Savanna Hernandez, and junior Joie Lacorte.
Captain Savanna Hernandez urges the importance of building strong relationships with teammates to maintain a strong team. “Having open communication, mutual respect, trust, and positive interactions with one another is important and is something that I try to push as captain,” Hernandez states. “It is best to just talk it out if there is any miscommunication to not let it affect the team and future games.”
“Pom is different each year and I can say that the team keeps getting better each year. It makes me proud to see the team working hard every single year,” Coach Montoya concludes.
