Threepeat
FMS dance team again wins double state championships
“We are very excited and happy we won,” head coach Victoria Ogier said.
It will be the end of the road nationally, however, for the team that won the national Pom title last year. Scheduling conflicts prevent participation in April’s U.S. competition.
“It is sad that we can’t defend our title,” said Ogier, who has guided the squad to all three double state titles along with last year’s national crown. “But I am so proud of these girls and very grateful they could even compete this year at all.”
Despite rampant COVID-19 restrictions, the squad competed virtually by submitting a video performance, and were officially crowned the double title winners Tuesday, March 9.
They were up against West Valley Valley Middle School’s dance team in the Jazz category, and five competitors in the Pom division, Ogier said, adding, “the girls gave everything they had, stepped up to the challenge and were able to present a very tough program we were all proud of.
“These girls are extremely hard working. With COVID restrictions, they couldn’t practice in ways they normally practiced, but they made it work. Every girl is also a member of a studio dance program, too so they were working all the time.”
FMS Dance Team members are eighth-graders Carson Kraemer (co-captain), Makenna McDonald (co-captain), Addison Fink, Mary Elizabeth Noble and Sophia von Wedel; seventh-graders Drew Patterson, Mary Aspin Scott, Natalie Mahoney, Saydee Riddle, Cassidy Stickley and Marlee Pyle; and sixth-graders Lydia Finnegan and Sydney Derr.
Tatum Allen is the team’s assistant coach.
For Ogier, the threepeats mark her final competition, as she will be leaving this summer to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm in Atlanta, Georgia. She has spent the last six years with the dance team, the first three as assistant coach, and also was a member of the squad herself as a middle schooler.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to work with such amazing dancers,” she said.
“I will miss both the dancers and the program I’ve worked with the entire time I’ve been in college,” noting she is finishing up her master’s degree at the University of Tennessee. “I am so thankful to have worked with such a special team.”
Ogier said Macy Brink, who already has been working with the team on their routines, will be the new head coach.
