Walking through each hallway with dancers and their creative colorful costumes. There is not one color you can’t spot. Each dancer saying “goodluck!”,”I love your costume!” Walking through the hallways you also see multiple teams practicing and warming up before they go and perform. The nervousness and excitement reaches each dancer. This is what a dance competition feels and sounds like.
On December 6, 2025, the Leyden Varsity Poms team competed in their first competition at Batavia High School in the 2025-2026 season, with a brand new dance that was choreographed with a choreographer over the summer. “I am most proud of the team’s commitment to taking on a very difficult routine this season. This team has shown us that we can push them to a higher level and they will rise to the challenge. I am so proud of their dedication and drive, and talent,” says Coach Thomas.
They may have not hit a score of 70, but they were very close. The judges comments will allow the team to progress better and potentially get a higher score for the next competition. Coach Cieplinski states, “I was impressed with our team’s first score from competition. IHSA made some changes in the scoring of the competitive dance, which we were nervous to see how we would do. I was excited to see that even with the changes in scoring and this year’s routine is pushing the team to be the best it has been!”
This new dance was choreographed by a choreographer, which really allowed us to challenge ourselves and aim for a higher score than last year’s season. Jessica Podsiadlo explains,” Having a choreographer with experience in making routines for other teams to use in competition was definitely a huge advantage. They know how to use our abilities in terms of skills and experience to create a routine that is able to compete with and look good compared to other schools’ routines. He did a great job making our routine and definitely helped us increase our score in the difficulty category.”
Captains were very proud of how the team has improved this year with such a challenging dance. Michelle Trinh says, ”As a captain, I am beyond proud of all the hard work and dedication our team has poured. This season especially, there is a new profound sense of determination for growth in our technique and performance quality. We’ve challenged ourselves, pushed each other, and reached new heights and skills.”
Another captain, Trinity Oceguera, also expresses how proud she is of the team this year.
She states, “100%. This year we stepped it up with a new choreographer from the award winning company Varsity, pushing us past what we had believed we were capable of. Our stamina, endurance, technique, and skill-level skyrocketed this year and I am beyond proud to be part of this team!”
The Leyden Varsity Poms team ended their first competition with a score of 69.77, on December 6th, at Batavia High School.
