To watch the Pop Rocks in action, see www.troypoprocks.com
The September/October issue of American Girl magazine featuring Troy's Pop Rocks is available nationally in retail bookstores and on newsstands, as well as by subscription through the American Girl catalogue.
The Pop Rocks will kick off their performance season sometime in late November/early December during basketball season.
The team will visit Dayton-area high schools and colleges and travel to perform at colleges across Ohio and out of state. The performance schedule will be available later this fall at www.troypoprocks.com and shared on social media accounts: Facebook.com/TroyPopRocks. Follow the team on Instagram and Twitter @TroyPopRocks.
When American Girl magazine editors were looking for a group of girls who “display their talents in a unique way,” they found the ideal group in Troy, Ohio.
The Pop Rocks, a team of third- to eighth-grade girls, have been entertaining audiences for the past six years by transforming the common jump rope into a not-so-common form of popular entertainment. With their amazing tricks and complex choreography, they’ve been wowing crowds at events ranging from the Harlem Globetrotters and the NCAA basketball tournament to college basketball games throughout Ohio including The Ohio State University, University of Dayton, Ohio University, Toledo, Akron, Bowling Green and more.
A Pop Rocks halftime show — about seven minutes in length — weaves together individual synchronized jump rope tricks, partner tricks, group tricks and tumbling. And it’s all done to the music and the beat, jump ropes in hand.
National recognition
The talented team is featured in a four-page spread entitled “Halftime Heroes” in the September/October issue of American Girl, one of the nation’s most popular magazines for girls. The magazine, aimed at ages 8 and up, is delivered to over 450,000 girls every other month and ranks among the top 10 children’s magazines.
Their thrust, say editors, is to provide an age-appropriate alternative to teen magazines by focusing on issues of self-esteem, fostering creativity and celebrating achievements.
That’s where the Troy students come in.
“American Girl magazine wants girls to know that they matter and what they care about matters, too,” said executive editor Barbara Stretchberry.”These girls are showing off what’s important to them, and the magazine wanted to help them share their story.”
Stretchberry said a freelance writer from her magazine conducted interviews with the girls last spring, then worked with Pop Rocks coach Josh Oakes to select the colorful photos that appear with the story.
In the feature, team members talk about the rewards of hard work, dedication, persistence, teamwork and friendship. They describe the challenges of trying out for the team, the life lessons they’ve learned from jumping and the excitement of performance.
How it began
Coach Josh Oakes, a Troy City Schools physical education teacher, says it was the students that first urged him to start a jump rope team. After teaching a unit on jump rope in gym class, he showed them a video clip demonstrating advanced jump rope routines. They were enthralled.
The kids were so excited by what they saw, they urged Oakes to start a local team.
“The first year it was only open to students at my school, Heywood Elementary,” remembers Maggie Welker, 12, who is now a seventh-grader at Troy Junior High and is beginning her sixth season on the team. “In the beginning, we would just go and have fun and then we decided to make up routines to perform at our school Fun Day.”
Maggie says the group really enjoyed performing in front of others and seeing the audience’s reaction and so the next year they expanded to another elementary school in Troy, Hook Elementary, where Oakes also teaches. By the third year, their coach was asking if they wanted to remain recreational or become “really good.”
The girls opted for "really good." These days the Pop Rocks are so good they have audiences screaming and shouting throughout their performances. Not to mention the standing ovations.
Their hundreds of tricks and steps range from Triple Under — the rope goes under the girls three times — to a Donkey Kick, which incorporates a hand stand. Then there’s the Bottom Buster, where they’re sitting down but still jumping rope.
“It has components of dancing and gymnastics, but it’s not like anything else. It’s really its own activity,” explains Maggie, who says she likes jumping because she’s staying active, having something fun to do and meeting “a bunch of new people.”
We’re basically a big family,” she says. “We see each other all of the time, and we’re very close.”
Sarah Pascale, 12, says it isn’t easy to make the team; she didn’t make it the first time she tried out. But her disappointment became a motivator and at her second tryout, she was accepted.
“I like how challenging it is and the rewards,” she says now. “And I like performing.”
Sarah says she’ll never forget the first time she performed in public, at a Wittenberg University basketball game.
“All of the college students were just going crazy,” Sarah says. “They were bowing down to us!”
Moms weigh in
Kris Pascale, in her third year as a Pop Rocks mom, says the activity has taught the girls how hard work can lead to success and how the success of the team depends on everyone working together.
“I’m a teacher and a lot of these girls are my former students,” she says. “I’ve watched shy second-graders go on to lead the team and to perform in front of thousands of people. It’s taught them to speak in public, given them self-confidence.”
Pascale says the girls practice nine hours a week, “probably more than any other team.” They practice both individually and in small groups throughout the summer and attend special training workshops and camps throughout the year. Some team members also train with tumbling instructors to blend jump rope skills with tumbling skills.
She says Coach Oakes is very special. In addition to picking and editing the music, he designs the routines — with the help of the girls who enjoy having input. He’s also brought in professional jumpers for consultation and to help with choreography.
“I doubt any coach in any sport puts more time into a sport than he does,” Pascale says. “He expects them to be even better and that encourages them to become even better. He includes a lot of motivational quotes and stories.”
Coaching jumpers
Oakes, who views jump rope as a growing sport, says when selecting team members each year, he looks for girls who are smart, spunky and have a work ethic. They’re required to keep up their grades in order to jump.
“They have to remember hundreds of steps and some of the moves they do are so unnatural,” he explains. “In six seconds of music, you might have 80 steps. Just multiply that by seven minutes and that’s a lot of steps. It takes a lot of muscle, memory and doing it day in and day out.”
Oakes says a new trick or routine can take months to learn.
“Nobody gets it the first day; they have to stay at it and work on it,” he says. “It may be the first time some of these kids have learned to stay after something and see it come to fruition through hard work and determination. They earn their spot and piece of the routine — they have to try out for it and maintain it.”
Oakes is hoping the girls who’ve been part of Troy Pop Rocks will have something to remember for a lifetime.
“It’s nice to see the kids grow, have fun, and accomplish things they never thought they could.”
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