States

What's up, sports fans. 

This weekend saw the culmination of months' worth of Abby's hard work in pom, with Midland Varsity Pom heading down to Eastern Michigan University for States (I forget the name of the pom association that runs it, it's something like MPAA or MPPA or MAPA or some crap, who knows.) Following their performance at Regionals (which was Heritage, if you'll recall), the girls landed themselves in the super-competitive Division I bracket, which pitted them against downstate juggernauts like Northville, Livonia, South Lyon, and others. 

More or less guaranteed to get their asses handed to them, seeing how Midland is relatively small in comparison, but everyone was stoked that they placed in the elite division to begin with.

This year's States showcase went down like it has the previous couple years that Abby's been involved with it. We left Midland in the early afternoon on Saturday, checked into our hotel and rendezvoused with the Johnsons, grabbed some dinner, and then turned in for the night. The next morning, not quite as early as we have in previous years (seeing how the varsity team performs in the afternoon instead of the ass-crack of dawn), Abby got ready with her team while we all slowly got around for the day. Then, later on in the morning, we drove over to Eastern to their gymnasium for the showcase.

But at least Abby remembered her uniform this time around.

We had to endure about two dozen pom routines before Abby and Midland took the stage, and their routine went perfectly. . . but they still ended up coming in last place in Division I. This was more or less expected, seeing how the bigger, downstate schools had huge teams and a ridiculously large pool from which to pull pommers, and consequently their routines were insane. Abby and Ella were pretty indifferent with their placement, though - like I said, they were just happy they had made it into the big leagues this time around. We'll see what happens next year.

Anyway, here's States, gang. Enjoy. . .

Abby and Ella, hauling a bunch of their crap into the hotel.

Us and the Johnsons got neighboring rooms up on the third floor, which was convenient since Abby and Ella are attached at the hip.

Establishing headquarters.

They had Kris' name up on the room's TV when we checked in, just like at Disney World.

Some obligatory hotel room shots. . .

This bathroom counter top was soon littered with all the girls' crap they use on a daily basis.

Shower looked fancy enough, but the water pressure sucked.

The girls, settling in.

Abby microwaving one of the hotel's complimentary cookies you get at check-in.

Abby and Alayna's bed (Abby wanted a pic of her set up, complete with a blanket from home and a stuffed animal.) Both girls insisted on bringing their own blankets, which took up tons of space and I ended up carrying them to and from the car more often than not.

View from the room.

Abby and Ella, hanging out in the Johnson's room.

The rooms had these little footstools on wheels for some reason, so Erik decided to take it for a spin around his room.

This, of course, got the girls giving it a go. . .

These two kept themselves entertained with this for awhile - surprised no one pinched a finger or something.

Eventually a hotel employee came along and yelled at everybody and our fun was cut short. There's no way in hell I would care that much to say something to a guest, but maybe that dude really, really takes minimum-wage hotel service seriously.

Someone heard about this pub/bar in Ann Arbor and wanted to check it out. It was pretty busy inside, and the service was weird: instead of being served, you snagged a table yourself, then walked up to the counter to place your food and drink orders, then they'd bring out your orders once they were ready.

Wives on phones.

This burger was pretty awesome (as was the beer.)

Courtney and Kris watching the trailer for the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie.

Meanwhile, Alayna was out with a friend that she used to work with at Taco Bell last summer (who is now attending Eastern), and Abby was doing some team-bonding activities with the rest of the team back at the hotel (shown here.)

They're kind of a package deal.

On the way back from dinner, we popped into a party store to pick up a few drinks, then hung out in the Johnson's room for a couple hours to watch TV and unwind. I had to break my readers out in order to figure out how to open this tall boy that I picked up, it was far too complicated for me.

Kids as energy drinks?

After awhile, we decided to turn in for the night - we had a big day of watching teenage girls ahead of us coming soon.

The next morning, Abby and Ella began grooming preparations with the team downstairs.

A couple hours later, following breakfast, we checked out of our rooms and drove over to nearby Ypsilanti for the showcase. Abby and a few other girls didn't have their hair finished, so they had to roll in with their hair looking like this. She was super excited about this, and truly appreciated me taking her picture.

Surprisingly enough, we found seats without an issue (a lot of folks must have cleared out after the middle school performances earlier in the morning, who knows.) Now we just had to sit through four hours of pom routines. . .

Abigail, Abby and Brooklyn, getting ready during the JV performances.

Alayna brought a bunch of her homework to do while we were just sitting around doing nothing, and managed to take a few pics here and there.

Kris and Courtney use a phone's zoom in order to try and locate their children from across the stadium.

Following the judge's scores, there came the usual hour-long process of trying to locate your children and get them out of the venue. Lots of picture-taking went down during this chaos, but the team was able to get a pic before everyone was scattered to the four winds.

Abby took a bunch of pics with various other pommers, including this one with one of her coaches (who is on the elite Atomic Pom team.)

(No idea who this is.)

With Brooklyn.

No idea.

Also no idea.

This chick's a senior on the team, but I don't know her name.

Always have to get one with her other half. . .

Abby reluctantly agreed to take one with her family, her least favorite thing to do at these things.

Abby and Ella, gossiping about and trash-talking other kids as they packed up their things before leaving. These two will gossip and trash-talk.

- Brian

Regionals: The First Trial

Heritage High School

What's up, readers.

Well, here we are again - yet another pom shin-dig. Competition Season has been in full swing for about a month now, with Abby attending pom practice with hear team like six days a week (she gets to rest on the Sabbath, that's about it.) Kicking competitions off is the annual Regionals showcase, once again at Heritage High School in Saginaw, where teams compete not against one another for scores or rankings (like they do at the MPA) but instead to qualify for next month's States showcase down at Eastern Michigan University.

Kris spotted Abby getting her hair fixed. 

Now that Abby's on the varsity team, qualifying for States is pretty much a guaranteed thing. Their team is super tight and polished, so nobody there doubted their inclusion in next month's competition, and as such Abby wasn't nervous about performing today at all. Since she's now in the older brackets of the day's competition, we didn't have to show up to the high school today quite as early as we've done the last four or five years - no more waking up at 5:30am just to stumble into a packed gymnasium at 7am - which was awesome. No, we rolled in around 10:30am and caught the land few JV teams before the break kicked off for judges to tally up all their scores.

The afternoon session lasted about two hours, which was much more manageable than the five-hour days we've stomached in the past. After Abby and her team were awarded their rankings this year (they qualified for the Division 1 Bracket, which will pit them against the ten other best pom squads in the state, which should be interesting to say the least), us and the Johnsons headed over to Timbers, a local sports bar, for our tradition food, beers, and debriefing session.

Now we all get to look forward to the epic conclusion of the Competition Season next month, down in Ypsilanti. Stay tuned for that adventure in a future installment.

So here you go, folks - Regionals '26. Enjoy. . .

This is what Kris took a pic of from across the gym - Abby's hair had come loose and one of the coaches had to fix it before they went on to perform.

While the girls awaited their turn to take the 'stage,' they distributed the portraits the All Star pommers had taken back at that Thanksgiving Parade they marched in. Abby had about two pounds of make-up on at the time, so she wasn't thrilled with how it turned out.

Kris, Courtney and Alayna (waist-deep in college homework) awaiting Midland High's turn to perform.

Midland Varsity Pom marches up, with Abby at the front of the line.

The routine was pretty snappy, and we didn't see any weak points in it throughout the song (though I'm not the best at spotting that sorta thing, even after all these years of going to pom competitions.)

Nailed the Kick Line.

(From the MHS Varsity Pom's Instagram account.)

(Abby is third from the right in the front row.)

The official video that was released to the coaches.

After all the teams had performed, the teams - as always - went down to the court and waited patiently for the judges to announce the results.

Midland High is in the back there, in blue.

Always with the bowed-down-praying-in-a-circle thing. . . .

Bam.

After all the teams had received their qualify/not-qualify results from the judges, kids began mingling about with parents (who all came down from the stands at the same time to collect their kids) and coaches scrambled to get some team pictures in. Here's the squad with their Regionals ribbons (Abby is third from the right in the back row.)

Brooklyn and Abby (as usual, Abby had to walk around and get pics with multiple combinations of people before we were able to get the hell out of there. . .)

Abby and some other random pommers (whose name escapes me.)

Abby, Harper (who's still on the JV team), and Ella (who was recently promoted to Varsity at the beginning of Competition Season.)

One with Grandma, who came out to watch Abby's performance.

Abby and yet another pommer who I don't know the name of.

Abby's boyfriend, Logan, came out to support her as well. I assume this is her shirt he's wearing, 'cause that'd be weird otherwise if he owned a pom shirt with her name emblazoned across the back.

Logan had arrived with a buddy of his to watch their respective girlfriends perform this afternoon, but his friend ended up ditching him to catch a ride home with his own girlfriend, so we ended up taking Logan along with us out to lunch and then home back to Midland.

We managed to get a family pic in, much to Abby's chagrin - she was funned out with pics at this point.

Ordering up some lunch at Timbers, after the competition. Everyone was starving at this point so food - and a couple beers - hit the spot.

Later that evening, the victorious Abby and her sister made a run to Taco Bell for even more food. . . because there's always room for Taco Bell around these parts. Stay tuned for Abby's climactic showdown in mid February. . .

- Brian