By Wei Wei Liu
Staff Writer

The members of the Color Guard run onto the field, followed by members of the marching band. Clothed in flowing beige tops and black pants, they begin their performance in unison with the marching band’s opening tune. The rippling flags flutter in the air and the rifles and sabres twirl in the sky.

Save for this performance by the Color Guard during halftime at this year’s Homecoming football game, the vast majority of the Guard’s performances are not viewed by the student body. As a result, most students do not know much about the school’s Color Guard.

“A Color Guard is a performing unit. While sometimes referred to as a ‘flag team,’ our members use flags, rifles, sabres and other equipment to perform, with dance and movement as a major focus. In the fall, the Color Guard joins the band to perform at football games, parades and field show competitions,” Coach Misty Reese said.

Beyond just flags
Flags, rifles and sabres constitute the majority of the techniques Color Guard uses in its performances.

“[Flag] is typically for more flowy slower songs…Flag technique is knowing how your wrists and arms move to direct the flag, and memorizing the position of the flag, like whether it is pointing up or down,” senior Julia Anderson said.
Julia is one of the team captains, along with senior Kendal Sager.

Rifle is rather demanding for the Guard members. It is heavier than a flag and therefore harder to toss.

“Rifle is more aggressive and intricate as far as the moves go, and the technique is to know where your hands need to be placed on the gun and where the checkpoints are that make us all look uniform,” Julia said.

Kendal was the only sabre this year, according to junior member Sheerin Salimi.
“Sabre is basically a dull sword…. It is basically like rifle, but it is weighted much differently, but the technique is [similar],” Julia said.

Built to compete
Performances and competitions are a large part of the Guard, which performs with the marching band. At competitions, Color Guard is ranked on a point system.

“We get judged on so many things including general effect, music, auxiliary [the Color Guard itself] and the general effect of the music,” Sheerin said.
Each year, the Color Guard and marching band choose a different theme as the focus of the performance.

“This year our show was ‘Colours,’ so each song had a different style of music which represented the color shown,” Sheerin said.

Making progress
Reese is a new coach for the Color Guard this year. Color Guard has previously changed coaches from year to year. Reese is proud of the Color Guard this year.

“I’ve given the Guard the belief that they can and have faced challenges as individuals and as a team that they can overcome. They’ve learned so much about respect for each other and their staff. They have learned to believe in themselves and learned how to trust others. Their skills have improved and they now have a passion for Color Guard, the kind that I think they see in me,” Reese said.

From Color to Winter Guard
With the fall season concluded, Winter Guard will soon begin. The Guard’s practices and performances during the fall have laid strong foundations for the next season.

The Color Guard season ended with the championships on November 21 and 22. The Guard placed fifteenth out of 28 bands, according to Reese.
“This competition was different from others because all season we kept adding to our show until it was finally complete at the [championships]. It was kind of like a puzzle. All season we built a puzzle and you couldn’t tell what the picture was until the last piece went into place. [It was] the same thing for the Guard. We finished the show and it was amazing that the show was so entertaining to watch…I think it’s an excellent finish and they should be proud,” Reese said.