by Lexi Carden

The Texas Tech Pom Squad is known for their national championship titles, but there is much more to this team than what you see in the headlines.

From the moment they become a member on the team, they become part of a family.

Erin Alvarado, head coach of the Pom Squad, said the dancers start bonding almost immediately after they make the team. During the summer, the team has practices in June, and then they go to dance camp. In that time, she said she assigns them to room with each other until they have bonded with everyone on the team. Alvarado expressed how important it is for them to form close relationships with each other.

“My goal is that by the time the season starts in September, they have been almost forced to get to know each other one on one,” Alvarado said.

Alyssa Cisneros, current Pom Squad member, said one of her favorite parts of being on the team is being able to make special bonds with one another.

“I don’t think that I will ever have better friends than I do from Pom,” Cisneros said. “I definitely view the Pom Squad as a family.”

Alvarado emphasized the importance of team bonding when it comes to competitive sport. She said she thinks they have achieved their goal of becoming national champions because of their close bond as a team.

“People always tell me that they can see how close they are, as a team, when they see them perform,” Alvarado said, “and I can see it too.”

The Pom Squad continues to create bonds by having their own special traditions they do as a team. Alvarado said most of the traditions the team has have stayed the same through the years, even before she was the head coach. She said they do many different types of traditions throughout the year.

“We do every single holiday together,” Alvarado said, “like we do Halloween together and we do Thanksgiving together.”

Cisneros said her favorite Pom Squad tradition is spending Thanksgiving with the team. Each member of the team brings food to have a team dinner, and spend time together. During the dinner, the team participates in their annual tradition called "Thankfuls."

“You have to have the team’s best interest at heart all the time,” Cisneros said. “There’s not one thing that we do that doesn’t require everything out of you.”

The auditions this year were unlike any others in the past.

Tech Pom Squad Coach Erin Alvarado said this year the audition changed because the team’s retention rate is so high, and because veterans typically have tryouts mastered by their fourth year.

“We have a lot of veterans every year, so we are looking for a way to make the tryout process difficult for them as well,” Alvarado said. “So, we made an adjustment this year and our first round was done via video audition.”

According to the Texas Tech Spirit Program website (TTSP), qualifying videos and online applications were required on March 23. In addition, live auditions on campus in May were for qualifiers only.

Some of the video requirements included leg turns, center leaps, toe touches, switch variations, leg extensions, hip-hop skills, side aerials and a 60-second solo, according to the TTSP website.

The live audition format on Saturday included a professional-individual interview where judges looked for personality traits conducive to being a successful contribution to the program, according to the TTSP website.

Moreover, a Texas Tech Fight Song and Chant evaluation took place as well as the center combination evaluations where each candidate is scored on technique and memory of dances learned at auditions.

Left (2): Members of the Pom Squad posing with their 2018 National Pom & Jazz trophy.
Right: Coach Erin Alvarado with her husband and the 2018 National Pom & Jazz trophy.

“There’s a lot expected of you, but that’s why we also say that what we do is not only physical, but mental toughness,” Franco said.

“You have to be able to take the pressure, you have to be able to take being tired for a week straight when we’re practicing during spring break,” Franco stressed.

After the auditions are over and candidates finally hear the news that they have made the team, the hard work has only just begun.

In the spring, practices increase throughout the week and range from three to four hours.

Cisneros also said the intensity of workouts and practices increase, with attending games year-round being physically exhausting too.

“We’re dancing for pretty much four hours straight,” Cisneros said.

Cisneros also mentioned the team has required workouts two-to-three times a week.

“But I would say we workout every single day because our practices are workouts in itself,” Cisneros said. “I mean our practices are intense, and on top of that sometimes we’re doing workouts before practice to really get our stamina pushed to the limit.”

Cisneros said she always tells people the hardest part about Pom is that the team has to work hard, dance for four hours straight, go to practices, workouts, and all while having to look pretty while doing it.

Although being a member of the Pom Squad is full of physical and mental exhaustion, the dancers find motivation and support from each other to persevere.

“There are going to be times where you are tired, and your feet are sore and you’re sweating and all of us are like that,” Franco said, “but that’s what pushes me through it.”

Franco explained that the team goes through these trials together, and that through it all the members will be there for one another no matter that.

“We do it for each other, we do it for our coaches, we do it for Tech, we find that motivation in each other,” Franco said.

Breaking Barriers

by Jasmine Stevens

Not only is Texas Tech’s Pom Squad program teeming with hard work, dedication, and a bond stronger than super glue, it is also one that prides itself on breaking barriers. The program has exuded this most in the enlisting of its two-year Pom member, Dominic Franco.

Franco, a senior BFA musical theatre major from El Paso, Texas, is the first male dancer in Texas Tech Pom Squad history to join the 25-member team.

Prior to trying out for Pom, Franco had no reservations about potentially being the first male member to join the team, attributing part of his unfazed attitude to dancing with “tons of boys” at an early age.

“I was like one of 25 boys at my studio,” Franco said. “So, when I came down here, none of that conservative mindset, or whatever, really fazed me. I knew there could obviously be people that may not be comfortable with it, but none of that fazed me going into it, because I knew I was going to be doing what I loved.”

Coach Erin Alvarado said she first met Franco in her Jazz 4 class as a fairly new adjunct faculty member in the dance department at Tech.

“I remember he came up to me on the very first day before I’d ever seen him dance and asked, ‘Can boys try out for Pom?’,” Alvarado said.

“I’m very straight forward, and I’m a really bad liar so I gave it to him how it is and said, ‘100 percent, yes you can, but I’m telling you right now, you have to have a top three score in the audition process to make this team,” Alvarado said laughing.

Alvarado stressed that a large part of Franco needing to make that score was due to being able to portray and embody uniformity in their performances, which she said is a huge hurdle in dance.

“We had to find a way to integrate him in the right way, and I told him that,” Alvarado said.

Upon seeing Franco dance for the first time in her class, Alvarado said she knew he could definitely be a part of her team. Though, she credited his personality and work ethic to being a major reason why.