Colorguard is....

"To those who understand... no explanation needed.

To those who don't... no explanation possible"

--Author Unknown

         Color guard is a great sport of the arts. It's one of the few activities that doesn't require a certain gender or height. You'll make friends, memories, and muscles! Color guard is spending lots of hours marching up and down a 50 by 70 foot football field in the summer and across the floor in winter spinning a 3 1/2 pound rifle or a 6 foot flag. You strive for perfection while hearing; "That's wrong! Pay attention!" over and over. It is riding countless hours on cold bumpy buses and eating in more fast food restaurants than you care to remember. Sometimes you march with blisters on your feet, splints on your fingers, when you're sick or when every muscle in your body aches. It means being willing to try again even though you have just suffered a defeat, tears are streaming down your face and your heart is breaking. Then another Saturday night comes! Judges, instructors, other guards, and 500 or more spectators are waiting for your performance. For five or six minutes, every ounce of your strength and concentration are dedicated to making our family, friends, and school proud of your competitive unit. The demanding, endless hours of practice have been a prelude to this moment. There is the hope in your heart, "Please, let this one be ours!" But color guard is much more than work and intense competition. It is closeness between young people that cannot be described. It is doing your best and knowing that you have your very own group of "fans" who you will always encourage and support you, Whether you win or lose.

             Color guard is Science. It is exact, specific and it demands precise execution. A designer's drill is a chart; a graph which indicates x and y coordinates for constantly changing geometric shapes and forms in both time and space. Our equipment and props are always pushing the laws of physics with force and speed, action and reaction. All of this with an incredible control of time.

           Color guard is Mathematical. It is rhythmically and metrically based on the subdivision of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously. We have angles and degrees, both acute and obtuse, sequences, ranges, and hypotenuse.

          Color guard is a Language. It is a visual picture alive with message and meaning. We use interpretive phases, sentences, and words many times with music which creates a most complete and universal language, to be recorded for others to see, feel, and understand. It is a language which is recited and shared many times both near and far.

         Color guard is History. Color guard can be influenced by the environment and times of it's creation, or it can reflect the past as well as the future. It can send us to a far away country or bring us closer to home. We are rich in our heritage and have forefathers as well.

         Color guard is a Physical. It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, feet and legs; in addition to extraordinary control of the back stomach and torso; all of which are called to respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the sight of the eye see. Color guard surrounds around endurance, ability, strength, and balance.

         Color guard is a Sport. A game which we play with others in which we share and we shine. Competing with ourselves to perform better each time. It allows us to learn more on our inside on confidence and fear, self-esteem and self-image; as we get better on the outside with performances, people, expressing our feelings, and sharing our dreams. It is a chance to realize our attitude is what makes us or breaks us, not anyone or anything else. It is a kind of mind set with an increase awareness which challenges us to realize the potential in our selves.

       Color guard is Performing Arts. It is a show which can be entertaining and enlightening! Full of colors, fashion, flair, excitement, pizzazz, sophistication, and subtlety. Always realizing the triad of performance: audience, performer, designer. Color guard is Educational. It allows a human being to learn how to take all of these things; some dry and technically boring, some difficult and challenging; and use them to create EMOTION!