Spinning Through Life with Springville Color Guard

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Swish! The fabric and colors fly as the Springville High School Winter Color Guard tosses, spins, and dances around the Springville Junior High’s gym floor.

For the students who do not know, color guard originally started as a military tradition. The military would carry their country’s flag and two rifles. They carried the flag in an appropriate position and showed great respect for it.

It is called color guard because it is referring to the colors on the American flag. The Springville color guard is a little different. For one thing, they dance to music instead of marching to orders.  The high schools uniforms are not military uniforms, but uniforms that have something to do with the song they are dancing to; this is the same with their flags.

To lots of people, the high school guard may look easy, but it isn’t. Susan Watson, a member of the color guard team thought it would be easy too, but now she knows better, “You have to have a lot of dedication to perform with the Springville color guard.” Even though color guard is hard and requires dedication it can be a ton of fun. “I love guard with a passion,” Susan continues, “I also love the girls on guard, that’s why I continued doing guard.’”   

Of course, it takes a lot of responsibility to be as dedicated as the girls on guard are. So, the guard has two captains to help. Makiah Williams is the captain, and Kara Dunn is the co-captain. They also have two instructors, Lindsay Vest and Kristen Cummings.

But, color guard isn’t just for girls. Boys are welcome to join guard as well. This year there is only one boy on the team, Corbin Cutler, who is the color guard’s manager.
 
Makiah said, “The captains are in charge of making sure the guard members have everything they need for competitions. We also make sure that every one on guard is getting along when the instructors are busy.” Kara added, “We make sure the guard stays focused, and we try to help our instructors in any way possible.”  Corbin has a very important job too, “I haul equipment and take the floor on and off when we compete.”

Kristen, one of the instructors is pleased with the guard’s progress this year. “Point wise, we started the season in the low forties but now we are making it to the low sixties.” She also explained that they have improved their technique and they have practices when they just focus on one part of the show.

But the guard isn’t just a team, they are a family. Outside of school and practices they hang out, have sleep over’s and just spend time together to strengthen their relationships. They also have an opportunity to spend hours together at competitions. “Competitions are my favorite.” Kara said, “It is our time to show judges what we can do. We get to watch other schools perform and bond as a guard.”

The color guard performed March 26th   at a competition, and took fifth place. They will perform at Riverton High School on April 2nd for state.

All eleven girls and Corbin are thrilled to have made fifth place at their last competition. Now they are anxiously waiting for state. Good luck Springville High School Color Guard!

Attributions
Camilla Dunn, SJHS Staff Writer