Have you seen Lindenhurst Varsity dance team perform at Lindy’s home games during halftime? You see sparkly poms, exciting tricks, excited smiles, and hear applause. The Varsity team puts in several hours a week perfecting their routine.
The 2024 team is coached by Lisa Zaino and 2 senior captains. The girls vote before the season starts. Diavona King and Christee Sessa were given the title. They have spent the most amount of time on the team, and are excellent leaders and dancers. The tryouts cause a lot of stress, but also excitement for a new routine and season.
There are only around 20 spots on the team. This season began at tryouts during the spring of 2024, at the end of the school year. 8th graders and current high school students had to memorize a one minute routine, during the season of finals and regents. The tryouts were 2 days long. The first day was spent learning the new routine and the coach and captains examining their dance skills and technique. That night those trying out went home and practiced the routine to try out the next day.
The second day they performed the routine they learned the day before for the panel of judges. The routine was performed in small groups behind a divider wall with a panel of judges consisting of coaches, teachers, and captains of the team the year before.
Then, weeks later after finals and regents were over, the girls found out the results. They had to wait until all of their important tests were over so they could focus on school. The coaches didn’t want the results to disrupt their academic performance. The coach told the dancers who tried out to come one by one into the cafeteria to find out the results. Each girl had to exit before the next walked in so the results were a secret. The coach and captains had to make some very hard decisions. In the end the team couldn’t be stronger.
The team started learning the new routine the week before school started, in August. The Varsity team spent several hours that week learning the routine. It is a difficult adjustment to move with pom poms, but the team caught on quickly. They then practice 3 days a week after school perfecting the routine. They need to make sure they are all in sync, and there is not a pom out of place.
The girls take pride in being on this team. They always go out on the field with big smiles on their faces. The girls are excited to perform at the middle school pep rally and our high school Homecoming game October 25th and 26th. They also proudly show awareness for breast cancer awareness month. For Homecoming and Pep Rally, the girls make an addition to their routine. Instead of silver poms, they use pink ones. During the routine for the month of October, they make the shape of a ribbon with their pink poms to show awareness. The girls have extra practice the weeks leading up to these games to perfect the new change. They need all their poms to align to make the perfect shape.
The girls are so excited to perform next! Come watch the Lindenhurst Varsity Dance Team!
