Aspen–The phrase “earn your poms” is usually limited to cheerleading movies but with the introduction of Hannah Gregory as the new head coach of the AHS dance team, that phrase may become a lot more commonplace, at least among dancers.

After being the AHS dance team captain her junior and senior year and dancing in college, Gregory has come back to coach the team. She is using her high school and college experiences to make the program a more serious and competitive sport. This includes drastically changing many aspects of the team including the uniforms, choreography, cheers, touchdown tradition, and the addition of lifts to the routines. While this is a lot of change, the team has risen to the challenge. The team’s seven captains have also worked hard to make the transition as easy as possible, including senior captain, Olivia Oksenhorn.

“I think it has been a pretty smooth adjustment,” Oksenhorn said. “Although [Hannah’s coaching] changed the atmosphere and flow of the team, I would say it was definitely for the better. I feel like everyone is super excited about being part of the team this year and with more practices in the week we are feeling more prepared and more enthusiastic for games than we have been in the past.”

This year the dance team is going beyond the Friday football and home basketball games and working to become a serious threat at competitions. They will compete at the Rocky Mountain Regionals in October and States in Denver in December with the hopes of advancing to Nationals at Universal Studios in Florida.

Although this is only Gregory’s first year as head coach, she is already making great progress and hopes to continue the momentum into future years.

“My biggest goal is setting up a program and different things every year so the future isn’t as uncertain and this team has a long term and short term future,” Gregory said.