Friday night: the sun has gone down, and stadium lights flood the entire field as the band loudly plays and the student section cheers on fourth down. In the midst of the sights and sounds, a group of performers prepare to engage in an authentic part of the Friday night football experience, dancing and culminating in a field show performed with flags — color guard.
Many color guard performers, like color guard captain Eva Bowen (12), have years of dancing experience that they can apply when performing at a football game. Others, like Bailey Carr (9) have no experience of dancing but still enjoy the opportunity color guard provides.
“I feel like I put emotion into [my performances] and express myself in a way that sometimes I can’t [otherwise],” Carr said. “Even if it’s ‘do this, do that,’ I can put sort of my own [emotions] into it.”
Performing for color guard is time-consuming. Performers have to go to band camp for three weeks during the summer and stay after school four days a week. This year, with the new band director, rehearsal times are from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“I know personally that [color guard] does take a toll on your body … but you’ve got to power through,” Carr said. “It’s hard work physically but not so much mentally because I’m in such a fun and caring environment that I don’t feel like I’m being left out.”
While enduring long practices and games, color guard performers have formed close bonds with each other and developed their own community. The Halloween game is an especially important tradition for the band and color guard, as they dress up and perform in matching costumes with the band members.
“It’s just really nice to have that experience,” Bowen said. “We went out to dinner in our costumes and we looked really crazy in that Mexican restaurant, but it’s really nice to be able to do that fun stuff even though we’re serious about performing.”
Color guard is a unique artistic and athletic feat, requiring dancing, marching and equipment handling. The variety of unfamiliar skills it demands places the duty of teaching on color guard coach Andrea Vancil.
“So we do dance fundamentals, equipment fundamentals and march fundamentals,” Vancil said. “So dance fundamentals are any dance styles … so we work on everything from walking across the floor like a dancer would with pointed feet all the way to doing specific moves, turns, leaps, things like that … and then we do equipment fundamentals, so we learn how to spin flags, and we’re looking at including rifles and sabres with our classic color guard equipment pieces.”
This year, color guard has new leadership: Bowen and co-captain Audrey Griggs (11). Aside from leading practices, they also have the opportunity to choreograph their own dances for the team.
“Sometimes I’ll let them [Bowen and Griggs] choreograph part of a routine or a solo,” Vancil said. “They’re my lifelines. I could not coach or sponsor without them.”
Despite their flamboyant and visual performing style, the color guard is still relatively unknown among students. Bowen and Vancil alike want to see the team grow in numbers and popularity and have their sport recognized.
“I want our team to get bigger, like more people every year,” Bowen said. “I want us to be more prominent in the school; I want us to be considered a sport … I want people to know about us because I know we’re really proud of what we do, and I want other people to really appreciate what we do.”