Student Life

Color Guard: An Under-the-Radar Sport at VHS

While people may not know what color guard is, they have probably seen them performing at halftime with the marching band. Here’s a glimpse into what it takes to be in color guard.

Delilah Bayes and Jeryan Erskine • September 16, 2024

Many people don’t know what color guard is, but if you’ve ever seen the marching band’s halftime performance, you’ve seen their skills in action. They are a vital piece of the performance, and the students in this activity train just as hard as the marching band. They practice three days a week; on two of these days, they practice with the marching band.

According to freshman Spencer Hansen, a member of the marching band, color guard enhances their performance and helps make the music come to life.

Colorguard consists of throwing or tossing either a flag or a wooden rifle in the air and catching it. Sometimes, it is called “drill team” or “auxiliary.” It is a pretty difficult sport: many team members we interviewed mentioned the number of bruises and injuries they have sustained while practicing or performing. Members have to be able to toss the flag/rifle up while dancing or moving around and still catch it.

Even though the injuries are common, many of the team members still enjoy it a lot. They mentioned that they get to meet new people and experience new things. One of the highlights of the year is the competition performances. Sophomore Athena Fundarek said one of her favorite things is to see the end result when they compete at Boise State for the DIII competition, the final performance of the season, and the annual competition in Washington. She devotes a lot of time to practicing with her flag outside of school.

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Sophomore Finley Stevenson enjoys that she has friends on the team. She said that in colorguard you must have a lot of stamina. Not only do you have to dance a lot while you are holding the flag or rifle, but the show is choreographed: this means that you have to move in intentional ways and memorize where you have to be at each moment of the performance. Most of the other students said that they like to perform in front of people, hang out with each other at practice, and travel for performances.

If you’re looking for a new activity or challenge, you can join color guard next year. You can catch them performing in the marching band’s halftime show at all of the home football games. The first competition of the season will be on October 5 in Kennewick, Wash. You can follow the team on Instagram @falcon_colorguard to see the latest activities and competition results this season.

color guard

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About the Contributors

Delilah Bayes, Staff Writer

My name is Delilah Bayes. I am a freshman I joined the journalism class because I enjoy writing. My favorite piece of writing is informative. In this class, I would like to be more a part of the school and let people know important things about our school. I would like to be a part of something greater than myself. I would like to help out in anything I can. By being in this class I will learn different skills, and I will learn how to talk to different people that I wouldn't normally talk to. I will learn to become a better writer, interviewer, and classmate.

Jeryan Erskine, Staff Writer

Hello, my name is Jeryan Erskine and I am a freshman at VHS. I joined journalism because it was what was on the list and I thought it would be fun, and I was right. Journalism is a very fun class to take. I like working on any type of story. The main thing I want to do is interview people because I like getting to know others and talking to new people. I want to learn how to properly interview people and expand my knowledge on writing and stories because I like writing. I started writing when I was younger because I was dedicated to writing a book but it sadly never happened. By taking this class, I want to learn new things and maybe one day I can actually publish a book.