A Newfound Love for Color Guard on Campus

The colorful flags spun quickly in the air as the color guard members dressed in exuberant costumes performed in front of the marching band. These people performing and dancing with flags are a part of the color guard. Most students just think of color guard as people throwing flags, but it is so much more than that.

This year eight new members joined, changing the team from 4 people to 12. This is because there is a large number of incoming students.

Felicia Lin spent a lot of time recruiting last year. She went to the middle school to teach some students how to spin, what color guard was, and had even performed for them. “I guess it paid off because we quadrupled in size this year,” said Lin.

New color guard member Elise Basic joined color guard because in middle school, many of her friends were involved in it, and it seemed fun and interesting.

“I have loved it ever since,” she said. “The people are so nice and take you in as one of their own in an instant,” said Basic.

Another member, Meera David, was interested in color guard after doing dance and ballet. “When I first saw color guard they look so graceful that I wanted to be like them,” David said.

Other than eight new members on the colorguard team, a new baton twirler, Molly Tamir, has joined the team. Baton twirling is a competitive sport that is a mix of rhythmic gymnastics and color guard. Tamir is also a rhythmic gymnast, which is the basis of her twirling career.

“Being a part of colorguard and twirling for the school helps me get into college with a scholarship because there’s not a lot of twirlers out there, and colleges look for them,” she said.

Color guards can be seen in most American high schools at football games. Usually, they perform with the marching band in order to add visual aid to the performance during halftime.

The purpose of the color guard team is to use their colorful flags to enhance the marching band.

It allows the audience to listen to the music better by following the color guard’s performance. In fact, the tosses and spins that each member performs are used to tell a story.

Every year color guard has a different theme to their show. They add “color” to rhythms and beats from the instrument players in the marching band as well as emotion and feeling to the audience.

“They tell the story of the music that the band is playing, which requires a bit of interpretation on our part because there is no written story, it’s just the music and the title of the songs,” said color guard leader Felicia Lin.

Color guard practices every A-Day during second period in the fall, and they have extra rehearsals out of school during the winter season, as they will be competing during that time.

Color guard is like any other sport, as many students regard sports as a part of their daily lives.

“Colorguard has changed my life a lot. It has influenced quite a few decisions I’ve had to make over the past few years that I’ve been in color guard. I spent the entire summer before my sophomore year marching in Drum Corps International, which is a competition for drum corps around the world, and that itself has changed my life experience and attitude towards certain things,” said Lin.  

Color guard is often unrecognized in our school, and many students really don’t know what it is.

Many Sea Kings say that they have seen color guard performing at football games, but are unsure of what it really is. Junior Marianne Schiappa said, “I’ve seen a few people practicing and noticed members of color guard on the football field for special events, but I’ve never been told anything about them.”

However, color guard leaders hope to gain more acknowledgement like the other sports at PVHS.

“I want colorguard to be recognized at our school. I would like for everyone at school to at least know what color guard is because every time I try to explain something regarding the color guard, I have to actually define it for them,” Lin said.

Band and colorguard spend great amounts of time on endless rehearsals, but they are not recognized for their hard work.

The next time you are at a football game, make sure to watch the Color Guard and the rhythm they create.Judy Yamaguchi