The RBHS Competitive Pom Poms team, the Pupettes, have won first place at their first two competitions at Hersey High School and Belvidere High School on December 2 and 9, 2017.

“We went to the competition, not really expecting anything. We just wanted to go out there and do better than we did last year. We got first place,” Senior Pupette McKenna Doyle said.

Last year, at their previous competition, they placed last.

“Last year was a rough year. It was our transition year between different coaches. Mrs. Doyle [coach] wasn’t really expecting a lot. Our dance wasn’t as good as it could have been,” Doyle said.“This year we had a completely different type of dance [which was] a lot better and we got a higher score than last year.”

There are eleven people and switching alternates on the team. Tryouts are required to be on the competitive team. Although sophomore Quincy Hayes has been dancing since she was three, this is her first year as a Pupette.

“I wanted to try something new and get back into dancing,” Hayes said. “In the beginning, I wasn’t totally sure [how we’d do] but as the season went on, I could tell that our team was working well together and the dance was looking pretty good.”

The competitions run from about 12pm until 6pm. The dancers have been preparing for competition for months.

“We first learned the dance over the summer and we started working on it again at the end of October,” Hayes said.

Their next competition will be on January 20, 2017, at Geneva High School for the IHSA sectional round.

“We’re not expecting first place at all competitions but it’s really exciting to see us do better,” Doyle said.