Poms vs. cheer

MARION - Many people see the poms team and think they are looking at the cheerleaders.

Then they see the cheerleaders and wonder why the school has two cheer teams.

The girls on the dance team always correct people when they can, but they can't tell people they are dancers when they don't voice it. There are many schools with poms teams and cheer teams. Linn-Mar has both, along with Marion. There are many ways to tell the difference between the two teams, including what they're wearing, what they are doing and when and where they are performing.

The biggest giveaway in wardrobe is the shoes are very different. Most dance teams have tan or black shoes. The tan shoes will only cover from the tip of their toes to the ball of their foot. The tan shoes also have elastic that holds the shoes to their feet by hooking around their heels. The black shoes cover their whole foot. It is a black shoe made of soft leather, with some elastic in the middle, by the arch of that person's foot. Cheerleaders, on the other hand, will be wearing cheer shoes. They are white shoes that look like lightweight tennis shoes. They are easier to use when lifting girls and they have more support. The shoe also won't get torn up by the asphalt, if needed to be in use on a track, like they are at Marion High School.

If people can't tell by the shoes, they should look at their uniforms. Most cheer teams don't wear the same uniforms as poms teams. They sometimes even say 'Marion Poms Team” or 'Marion Cheer Team.” At Marion, the poms team has white uniforms and the cheer team has white uniforms. At Linn-Mar, the cheer team has black uniforms with a touch of red on the side and the poms team has white uniforms with red on the sleeves.

If people don't want to try to discern the difference by their outfits, they can always look and see what the girls are doing.

There is a very large difference of what the poms teams do versus the cheerleaders. The poms team is dancing. They work on choreography for weeks. They don't do many lifts and tricks, especially not during football season. They will be the ones doing turns and leaps. They don't yell during routines, either. Instead, they have smiles plastered to their faces the whole time.

The cheerleaders throw and lift girls. They yell and shout and cheer up the crowd, hence the name cheerleaders. They are in charge of riling up the crowd and getting them excited about the football plays.

The poms team is there for the crowd's entertainment, not to get them pumped for the offense or defense.

If trying to watch the girls, and what they're doing, is too much of a distraction from the game, watch to see when and where they are dancing.

The poms team always performs at halftime, not during a football or basketball game. The cheerleaders will be cheering the whole game, making sure everyone is excited for whichever sport is being watched.

The poms teams and cheer teams have different competitions, too. Some competitions are combined, but there will never be a competition where cheerleaders are competing against poms teams.

After about the first year of trying to define the difference between poms teams and cheerleaders, it gets kind of old.

There have been many instances where the poms team gets cheered because people think they are cheerleaders. They are mostly mistaken at parades. There always are little kids oohing and ahhing over the 'cheerleaders” when it is truly the poms team, dancing their butts off. The cheer team may get it, too. Each team corrects people quite a bit.

So next time anyone goes to a parade - or a basketball or football game - make sure to check and see which team you are cheering for.