The Lady Diggers’ a la seconds and kick line were both on-point, but, ultimately, it wasn’t enough and Vail Christian, relegating them to third place, dethroned them.

Dancing to a remix of Jessie James’ “Bang! Bang!” the girls’ boomed explosive jumps and splits that should have blown away the other 2A teams. It was a disappointing ending to their first year in 2A after dropping down from 3A, but Clear Creek head coach Natalie Winkler was still very proud of her girls.

“They did great, especially compared to their league competition,” said Winkler. “They struggled with a lot of nerves at leagues, but we were able to pull it together for state and I am so proud of them.”

Winkler credits the girls’ turnaround to the leadership demonstrated by her senior captain Destinie Vigil and sophomore co-captain Lily Kitting.

“I know that every team always says that they are like family, but I honestly believe that poms is different because we only get one shot to prove ourselves,” said Vigil. “Other teams have multiple games throughout the year to compete, but poms only have two minutes (and) there are no re-dos.”

The painful reality of not having do-overs is something Vigil and her team faced earlier this year at leagues.

“(Since we did) very bad a leagues,” said Vigil, “I told the girls that leagues was like a pre-game before state. And coming into state we felt so confident.”

Knowing that confidence, especially from the captains, is crucial in motivating a squad, Vigil recalled the Lady Diggers’ first state win back in 2012.

“Our captains convinced us that we were going to win because it was the first year that we had (such an outstanding) dance routine, so it wasn’t shocking (to me) when we did,” Vigil said.

Confidence is what Vigil was hoping to impress upon her squad this year.

Kitting says the pressure to be perfect at state pales in comparison to the pressure to build a good team since she will be taking over the reins next year as captain and the bar has been set high by Vigil.

“Being a co-captain has taught me how to be a leader and be more of an example to the girls on the team,” said Kitting. “And being on poms has taught me to just get out there because win or lose it’s going to be OK.”

That ‘win or lose’ attitude — mixed with a few a la seconds — is what has helped make Clear Creek such a dynamic team these past few years.