Since I was a freshman in high school, I was a part of the MHS Marching Band spinning for their color guard. Now that I have graduated, for the past four months, I have been helping coach the group of girls that share the same passion of color guard that I have. Some of you may be asking yourself how does this have anything to do with nature. Well, let me give you a little insight into how the two relate.
First off, guard season starts in the middle of July usually with some sort of basics camp. For me, I attended Michigan State's performing arts camp for four years. This means that for three days straight, I was out in the blazing sun practicing basics and learning routines for more than six hours a day. That is a lot of nature.
After basics camp comes a weeklong band camp at the high school in August. This year, for the first time, I was an instructor rather than a student at the camp. Again, because we as color guard can not throw our six foot flags in the air seven feet or so inside, we are forced to be outside in the elements for an entire week. On the one hand, that's a plus because if it is sunny all week you get a great tan. On the other hand, if it is raining and there is no lightning outside, you become wet and miserable and spinning a flag becomes way more difficult because the silk just absorbs the water. If you're lucky and there is no wind when it is raining, you avoid the wonderful silk whip marks that inevitably come with spinning a wet silk. This is the down side of nature and color guard for sure.
After band camp comes a lot of Monday night rehearsals where the color guard and the band work together to make an awesome half time show to be performed at Friday night football games along with one major competition.
On October 13th, the Marshall High School marching band and surrounding schools in our district had their MSBOA marching band festival. For my school in particular, all the hard work that we put in during the football season on the show is focused more or less on this one performance. At festival the band and color guard are judged by three different judges on stylistic, musical, and visual categories. The goal of every band that competes at festival is to receive a division 1 rating which is the highest and most prestigious rating that a band can receive at MSBOA competition. On the 13th, it was raining. Now, from the information that was given earlier, one can safely say that I being one of the color guard instructors was very nervous to see how the competition was going to go. Wet silks make everything difficult. Just doing a simple move like a drop spin is difficult let alone a vertical “helicopter” toss above your head.
Standing nervously on the sidelines as the band took the field, the skies lightened and the rain stopped. The color guard performed fantastically and had by far the best show of the season that night. Thanks to all the hard work, love, and dedication that the students and staff put into the show, the Marshall High School marching band received a division 1 rating this year. I am still so proud of the students, especially the girls on the color guard, and cannot wait to do it all again next season.
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