{"id":2451988,"date":"2019-12-08T19:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T02:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-high-dance-teams-wins-first-state-championship\/"},"modified":"2019-12-08T19:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T02:04:00","slug":"aspen-high-dance-teams-wins-first-state-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-high-dance-teams-wins-first-state-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen High dance teams wins first state championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.5991189427313\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-317333-371\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/AHSdance-atd-120919-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/AHSdance-atd-120919-1-1024x768.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy photo | The Aspen High School dance team celebrates with the trophy and banner after winning the Class 3A poms state championship on Saturday at the Denver Coliseum. It's the first state title in program history.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>The Aspen High School dance team celebrates with the trophy and banner after winning the Class 3A poms state championship on Saturday at the Denver Coliseum. It&#8217;s the first state title in program history.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy photo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/AHSdance-atd-120919-1-1024x768.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"The Aspen High School dance team celebrates with the trophy and banner after winning the Class 3A poms state championship on Saturday at the Denver Coliseum. It's the first state title in program history.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/AHSdance-atd-120919-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/AHSdance-atd-120919-1-1-768x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy photo | Aspen High School dance team captains Juliana Nickell, left, and Louise Lipsey, right, pose with coach Maddy Miller after the team won the Class 3A poms state championship on Saturday in Denver.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Aspen High School dance team captains Juliana Nickell, left, and Louise Lipsey, right, pose with coach Maddy Miller after the team won the Class 3A poms state championship on Saturday in Denver.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy photo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/AHSdance-atd-120919-1-1-768x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Aspen High School dance team captains Juliana Nickell, left, and Louise Lipsey, right, pose with coach Maddy Miller after the team won the Class 3A poms state championship on Saturday in Denver.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/aspen-high-dance-teams-wins-first-state-championship\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/aspen-high-dance-teams-wins-first-state-championship\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">When Maddy Miller interviewed for the job, she tossed out her goal of winning a state championship. This may have been a bit of bravado for the former Denver Nuggets dancer who took over as head coach of the Aspen High School spirit and dance team this fall, but then again, maybe it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhat was funny was I didn\u2019t realize what I was getting myself into. I had never seen any of them really dance and I remember being very overwhelmed in the beginning,\u201d said Miller, who coaches the team alongside assistant Gioia Bartalo, a former Denver Broncos cheerleader. \u201cThey started getting more confident in themselves and I think after our last competition, getting fourth, we realized we had a chance. They worked really hard and in the last month it\u2019s probably the hardest I\u2019ve ever seen any of them work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">What may have been a bold goal only a few months ago materialized into something very real as the season progressed. It all came together Saturday when the Skiers held off SkyView Academy to win the Class 3A poms title at the Denver Coliseum. It was Aspen\u2019s first Colorado High School Activities Association state championship in spirit or dance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI honestly keep crying. I don\u2019t cry often and I\u2019m really tough around the girls. It\u2019s really cool and the girls are on cloud nine right now and they should be,\u201d Miller said Sunday afternoon. \u201cThey worked so hard and easily they deserved it. There is not a question in my mind about how well they performed. It was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The actual state competition lasted about four minutes for the Skiers. The whole ordeal lasted all day, and some. They got to Denver around 11 p.m. Friday and were up again by 4:30 a.m. Saturday to get ready for their qualifying dance just after 8 a.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">There were six teams competing in the 3A poms division, with the top two making it into finals later Saturday night. Miller thought it would come down to Aspen and University, but was hit with a surprise Saturday morning when SkyView was announced as the first team to qualify into finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe all sat and held hands. Everyone is shaking and freaking out. And then they announce SkyView first. I\u2019m not going to lie, I had a minor heart attack there because that\u2019s not the team I thought was going to be in finals,\u201d Miller said. \u201cObviously I\u2019m just trying not to get my hopes up too much. Then, right after that, they said Aspen and everyone freaked out, everyone cried. Very normal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">With a score of 86.26, Aspen qualified first with SkyView coming in second at 83.06. University would have been second with 84.5, but was hit with a 20-point deduction and finished fifth. Riverdale Ridge (third), Grand Valley (fourth) and Bayfield (sixth) also competed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The 3A poms finalists were announced late Saturday morning, but the finals competition wasn\u2019t until after 8 p.m. that night. The actual dance routine is only two minutes long, and part of what the Skiers had to do in that downtime is fine-tune their mistakes from qualifying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe biggest thing from prelims to finals is you got to show the judges you are listening to the critiques and fix the things they had comments about. So we went around and made sure every little detail is back the way it needs to be,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThey danced their hearts out. It was the best time I\u2019ve ever seen them do it. It was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Then it was more waiting. The awards ceremony wasn\u2019t until around 11 p.m. Saturday, an agonizingly long time for a team waiting to see if it had finally won a state championship. Having hardly slept over the prior 24 hours and operating purely on adrenaline, the Skiers again held hands and hoped for the best.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In their final practice before state, some of the dancers had admired the state championship banners in Aspen\u2019s gymnasium and dared to dream of adding their own. It was a team hoping to earn some respect \u2014 or even to get noticed \u2014 for its talents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Validation finally came late Saturday night: Aspen 92.5, SkyView 91.22.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThey announced the runner-up and it was SkyView and immediately I started crying. The girls are freaking out,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt was a very surreal moment. I think it\u2019s still catching up to everyone that we did it and I don\u2019t think they are going to forget that for a very long time. I\u2019m so proud of them. They\u2019ve worked so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Now, probably before that banner even gets hung in the AHS gymnasium, it\u2019s back to work. Last month at a regional meet, the Skiers qualified for the National Dance Alliance national championship, held March 6 to 8 at Disney World in Orlando.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Not only does Miller plan to have all 14 dancers, which includes their alternates, competing for the poms title in Florida, but AHS also has to have a jazz routine, something they plan to work on over the coming months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThey finally realized they are not only now the best 3A team in the state of Colorado, but they would have placed so high up with 5A teams and they realize that now,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWinning state, that is probably the biggest confidence booster you can ever have. I think it finally shows them officially they are good enough to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:acolbert@aspentimes.com\">acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/aspen-high-dance-teams-wins-first-state-championship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Aspen High School dance team celebrates with the trophy and banner after winning the Class 3A poms state championship on Saturday at the Denver Coliseum. It&#8217;s the first state title in program history.Courtesy photo Aspen High School dance team captains Juliana Nickell, left, and Louise Lipsey, right, pose with coach Maddy Miller after the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 03:23:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}