The MHS color guard team earned bronze medals and placed third out of six schools at the winter guard championships in the Scholastic National AA division, which took place on April 1 at Independence High School, according to junior color guard member Sean Sevilla.
Despite the performance beginning at 6 p.m., color guard members gathered at 8 a.m. at IHS to practice and perfect their choreography, Sevilla said.
“We’d work on performance skills across the floors, which was dancing from one point to the other,” Sevilla said. “After, we would move on to equipment, like I was on rifle and flag, and we would keep going over different parts of the routine to review.”
The color guard staff includes head captain Randy Tam, movement specialist Marina Bargas, and weapons specialist Nick Bedard, who all contributed to creating the team’s choreography, senior color guard member Kara Pang said.
“As we got closer to champs, our weekend rehearsals would turn into entire competition days, where we competed every Saturday,” Pang said. “We would get comments from judges about what we were doing well and what we could improve on.”
Routine practices for the championship performance consisted mainly of cleaning, which is paying attention to minute details and making sure the choreography is the best it can be, junior color guard member Jorelle Babida said.
“For example, if someone’s off by a count, then the instructors will be like, ‘Hey, you’re off by a count. Try to go a little bit slower or a little faster,’” Babida said.
The best aspect of championships was how unique the team’s show concept was, Sevilla said.
“Being the soloist, I acted as the human, and the rest of the members were dolls in music boxes and tried possessing me,” Sevilla said. “In the end, I became one of the dolls. I liked how unique our concept was, especially compared to last year’s winter season.”
On the other hand, Babida’s favorite aspect of the show was the fact that every member was in a positive mood and having fun, she said.
“Everyone was confident about the show, and I feel like that was our peak,” Babida said. “It was the best we felt we’ve ever done, and the cleanest our show has ever been.”
Although Sevilla thinks previous seasons were more exciting since he was a new member at the time, he still felt a rush of adrenaline in the moments leading up to this year’s championship performance, he said.
“It was definitely exciting, especially because way more people were watching us compared to last season because of how we were promoted and ranked this year,” Sevilla said.
In previous competitions during the season, the color guard team placed in the last place range, Babida said. She expected the team to continue placing low in competitions early on, she added. However, as the season progressed, the team began to place higher, she added.
“I was shocked and proud of our team for pushing, especially at champs since the season was kind of rough,” Babida said.
Part of the reason for the color guard team’s jump from low placements in earlier competitions to the top three in the final ones is because judges differ with each show, Babida said. Although some judges loved their shows, some judges also did not understand the concepts, she added.
“Also, as the season went on, our technique got so much better, especially for people who just started color guard,” Babida said. “At first, there were parts that could have been better, but as the season went on and as more people improved, I feel like that’s how we placed higher. Our shows had a lot of potential from the beginning, and it was just mainly the execution of how we performed them.”
This year is Pang’s last year of being on the color guard team, and she doesn’t plan on dedicating much time to performing arts after high school, she said. However, she enjoyed the experience of playing a different persona in each show, she added.
“You get to take on a whole new character that’s completely not you, and I feel like you can’t really get to do that anywhere else,” Pang said.
Last year, the color guard team was much smaller, consisting of 12 members compared to this year’s 22 members, Pang said.
“Last year was also more stressful,” Pang said. “Everyone was completely new to winter guard because it was the first time the school had had it since three years prior.”
With such a big group of people this year, group bonding activities such as spending time with each other outside of practice helped them perform better together, Sevilla said.
“When we perform together, it’s just us on the stage and on the field,” Sevilla said. “It’s our own little world, and seeing each other do things that we genuinely enjoy and having fun just boosts our morale. It makes everything a lot easier and more fun.”