Speaking
of Sports 

by
Lance J. Lilla

 
Determination and commitment: Novi Varsity Pom

November 7, 2011

Determination and commitment are two qualities that will get an individual or a team a long way. When an extensive amount of effort and perseverance is put forth, huge accomplishments can be made. The Novi Wildcats Varsity Pom team is living proof of this.

Winning the state championships two years in a row is no small feat. An accomplishment such as this does not come easy. Excessive hours of practice and team bonding is necessary to have an end result as impressive as theirs.

For example, the Novi Varsity Pom team practices 4 to 5 days a week, and puts in approximately 3 hours for each session. Within each session, repetition is a key component. This repetition is the tool needed in becoming the undefeatable force that Novi Pom has made themselves known to be.

Though, some individuals do not accept the skill and talent displayed by Novi Varsity Pom. Some individuals debatably have the opinion that Novi's winning streak needed to end and it was time for a new team to emerge victorious.

In the scoring system there are four judges who grade multiple factors of a team's performance such as: appearance, showmanship, choreography, formations, transitions, timing and overall performance on a scale of 1-10. Each year the same judges come to grade these competitions. It's human nature that some judges may have formed biased opinions towards certain teams. One would have to be naive to deny that possibility.

With that possibility known, one could argue that instead of giving a certain team a 10 on a specific aspect of their performance, they reward them with an 8 or a 9 and, because they are a judge they are not required to give an explanation for their opinion.

In this imperfect world it is more likely than not that this type of scoring took place on Sunday's high kick Pom competition that Novi participated in. The unique and impressive performance delivered by Novi's Varsity Pom squad undoubtedly held the highest difficulty level of all the performance in the tournament. Not only was it the most difficult, but it was also executed at a level which exceeded all of its competition's.

Even with this known, for some unexplained reason the team that deserved 1st place was not granted what was rightfully theirs. They were granted 2nd place and lost to a much less deserving team.

I say none of this based on opinion, but based on factual information. Bottom line, the skill and talent made apparent by Novi's squad surpassed all of it's competition and was unrightfully given less than they deserved.

Novi's determination and commitment may have been under appreciated, but it has not gone unnoticed.

(c) 2011 Novi Information Network
www.novi.org