Dancing With The Poms

Brunswick High School has almost any athletic team that can be imagined from the usual contact sports, like football, to cheerleading, to even Unifed sports like bocce—but BHS has never had a dance program. 

During the 2021-2022 school year Brunswick student Jenna Dick noticed Brunswick’s lack of Poms/Dance team. Almost every other school in FCPS has one. She reached out to fellow classmate and dancer Taylor Fry with the idea to start a Brunswick Poms/ Dance team. Both Taylor and Jenna dance outside of school, but wanted to bring their love of dance to Brunswick. They contacted the 9th grade class advisor, Mr. Tuomey, knowing his background as a “Dance Dad.”

With a great amount of hope Mr. Tuomey got on board with the idea. He worked hard to contact the admin and get approval. Eventually, with the help of coaches Brandy Fry and Kelli Dick, BHS Poms was a go! 

“Me and Jenna Dick are both dancers of more than 10 years and towards the middle of our freshman year we realized there’s no program here at Brunswick that can help us express what we love. For a while we just had the idea up in the air because of all the rules that come with a club, but once we had our ideas solid and approval from the principals we wasted no time and got the club started. Now that that club has become such a positive thing at school I can’t wait for the program to grow and see how it evolves over my next few years of high school. I’m so happy that we are now able to be apart of fellow students experiences when it comes to sharing what they love to do, whether it’s a new hobby or an old one.” Brunwick sophmore and BHS Poms co-founder Taylor Fry remarks.

Around the end of the 2021/2022 school year, the advertisements went out! Many previous dancers, or students who just wanted to learn, signed up to join. The club was open to anyone and became a hit.

Poms began with the 2022-2023 school year, as football season began so did Poms’ 6 AM practices. This new team worked hard, knowing they really needed to prove themselves at the first football game. Taylor and Jenna’s mothers, Brandy Fry and Kelli Dick, put in a great amount of work to make poms the success it is today. Working hard with the girls bright and early before school, choreographing dances, ordering uniforms/ team jackets, monitoring fundraising, and much more, they are really the glue to this team.

The first game was a success and Poms was a hit! There was so much support from students and parents it was amazing to see the hard work pay off. Poms continued to perform every home game during halftime. With fresh dances every week the team worked hard to be innovative and keep the crowd interested with every performance. 

Poms has now done many different things, from football halftime to basketball. Pep rallies, middle school events and more. As basketball season ends BHS Poms will begin their “Dancing with the Poms” fundraiser event where a Poms member will partner with a BHS athlete in a dance competition in May. Proceeds will be split between poms and the BHS athletic program. Currently, Poms is selling fun socks as a funrasier. It begins 1/30/23 and ends 2/6/23. Click THIS LINK to browse cool pattern socks, and donate to help BHS Poms grow!

There is much more to come from this growing team when football season begins again. A small idea became such a great success. It is amazing to see dance being included in Brunswick High School and it will be even better to see this team continue to grow for years to come.