Colorguard their View on the Football Game

There are many things going on during a Friday night home football game at the stadium at in Valley Center, especially since it’s the first home game of the season. Knowing what kind of event this is, it’s a given that many people will be coming here. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about why someone would come to this football game is obviously to watch the football team play. The second reason, and less popular reason, is to come watch the cheerleaders or the dance team.

The third reason some people come to watch the band during the halftime show; but there aren’t very many people who come to the game to watch the colorguard during the halftime show. A big reason people don’t come watch is because they think it’s something that’s easy and boring, when really it’s the complete opposite of that. Colorguard performs with the marching band during the halftime show; they help tell the story of the music that the band is playing.

EXPLAIN WHAT WE DO AT GAME

Colorguard is a unique activity that isn’t well known. Whenever someone asks what it is, it isn’t very easy to describe it to them and involve all of the details that are required in order to fully understand it. When people that aren’t a part of colorguard or people that only watch it because someone they know does it, they don’t give a description that lives up to what this sport really is. Heather Stone, mother of a colorguard member, is one of these people. She describes colorguard as the people that “have flags and rifles that they twirl with the band and throw way up in the air” or “people that do the halftime show at the football with the flags and rifles”. But people that are more experienced and involved with it have a more meaningful and descriptive way to explain this sport.

Grace LaMastres, junior on the Valley Center high school colorguard team, describes it as a sport that goes beyond the individual. She stated “If the team doesn’t work well together, then you will get nothing accomplished”. She also described it as “an interesting way to express yourself by means of flag, weapon, makeup, and dance”. There are so many different ways to describe this sport.

Kahle Snell, coach of the Valley Center high school colorguard team, gives a great and creative explanation of colorguard. Kahle says how colorguard portrays colors and emotions behind the music they are performing to. Anna Qualls, an “alumni” from the Valley Center high school colorguard team, said something similar to what Kahle had to say. She mentioned how the colorguard gives the visuals of the show and tells the story of the music they are performing to.

There’s a lot more behind this activity than what people think. Like Emily Kutz, senior on the Valley Center colorguard team, said “People who aren’t familiar with the activity don’t realize how much goes into it”.

Colorguard is a physical activity that is a part of a marching band. The purpose of colorguard is to describe the music through actions by using a routine on flag, sabre, rifle, and dance. They can be with any kind of marching band from high school, to college, to drum corp.

In the past, colorguard was only used for military purposes to show the American flag and any other flags that were necessary for the event. In the early 1970’s, colorguard would start to perform with marching bands. This is something that has grown so much in the past fort eight years. Some things that have changed are the equipment used, the work that is done in the routines, and the kinds of shows that are being put on. Colorguard teams used to only use flags, but they started adding in rifles and sabres into their shows. They have even made their equipment look more professional and creative, especially if they’re trying to make their equipment match what their show is about. The work that colorguard teams used to do was simple, not as serious, and easy to catch on. Nowadays, the work that is done is more advanced and competitive than it was in the past.

Colorguard is a sport than can be very physically demanding, depending on the level of difficulty of the work the team is doing. Like Emily Kutz said “Colorguard is a much more physical activity than many of people realize. It takes hard work and dedication to get the show memorized and clean. It’s very technical. If your technique isn’t right, it can make the whole thing look wrong”. The Valley Center colorguard team has lots of talent and potential, one of the best out of the other 5A schools. There is a lot of hard work and countless hours that are put into the routines that the team does.

Almost every high school that has a marching band has a colorguard. Not many people are aware of this, but like any other sports team, not every colorguard team has the same skill level. Colorguard teams with a higher skill level will have a different kind of show with work that more intense and advanced than a colorguard team whose skill level is lower. Valley Center high school has had a colorguard as long as they’ve had a marching band. It isn’t an activity that has been added to our school recently.

There are fifteen members on the colorguard team, one coach, and one assistant coach. Six members are freshman, five members are juniors, and three members are seniors. In past years the colorguard team hasn’t been very close because people would always make sassy, unneeded comments behind each others back and it would cause drama. It is something that affected us as a team; it caused us to not spin well together and there was a lot of tension. That is something has changed a lot this year. This is the head coaches second year coaching the Valley Center high school colorguard team, and there have been many issues with him this year. Things that a coach shouldn’t say have been said and he slacks on showing up to practices when he’s supposed to, but these issues have bonded the colorguard team together and have made them closer than they have ever been. They have become a family. Sometimes when things with the coach are getting bad the team rants to each other about it, makes a few jokes to lighten the mood, then moves on and keeps working hard. This family aspect the team has is one of the things that makes colorguard look enjoyable.

There are many different reasons that the members of the team have been drawn to this sport. Some people are just attracted to the way it looks, like Grace LaMastres. She said she felt this way while she watched her brother in marching band during middle school. Some people are interested in it because their friend told them they should try it. Jillian Norris, senior on the Valley Center high school colorguard team, said this is how she got involved in colorguard. Some people just tried it because they thought it looked fun, and continued to do it since they had fun while doing it. This is how Alex Palmer, freshman on the Valley Center high school colorguard team, became convinced to be a part of colorguard.

The main time when the colorguard team is able to show the community what they have been working on is during the halftime shows at home football games. They know they’re not the main focus of the football game, but that doesn’t stop them from getting excited and having fun. Everything they have been working hard for pays off tonight.

The team practices before the game and during second quarter of the game, and then gets ready to leave it all on the field. This is the time everyone says positive, uplifting things to each other. They remind each other to have fun, remember everything everyone has worked on, show the work we’ve done, and to not be nervous.

Before the game they do their “VCCG” chant to get everyone excited and a prayer circle to help everyone not worry so much. This is when everyone gets really excited, they finally get to do what they love. They patiently wait as the dance team does their routine. Right when they’re done, the colorguard team gets into character for the show and performs with everything they’ve got.

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