Feet find their assigned positions. Hands grip flags and sabres with practiced assurance. Music fills the gym as splashes of color erupt from spinning flags, complemented by perfectly choreographed aerial tosses.
Color guard will be performing their winter show “Comforting Sounds” in the small gym tomorrow at 7 p.m. The performance falls right before their state-wide meet Sunday, April 7 in College Station.
“This year, we started training earlier and created a bigger emphasis on our personal performance as well as the group performance,” senior Carol Mahoney said. “The point of guard is to all look the same, like one big pod. We also were focused on refining the choreography we had. We spend a lot of time detailing our exact movements so we end up moving together.”
According to Mahoney, the team is currently ranked second in the state and fourth in the nation. Requiring perfect technique and finesse, to Mahoney, color guard qualifies as just as much of a sport as football or baseball, with an added element.
“The big difference about guard and other sports is that we strive to create an emotion,” Mahoney said. “We want the audience to walk away feeling changed by us. Yeah, they cheer when the weapons and flags go up in the air and land just right in our hands, but it’s the rest of the show when we simply spin our hearts out, that makes them cry and feel something.”
Despite the drive to create emotion in spectators, Mahoney said color guard still remains an overlooked sport.
“It is slowly gaining momentum and our season this year is helping make it a respectable activity,” Mahoney said. “Color guard is also strange. Tossing bed sheets on six foot poles is not normal. Tossing chunks of wood into the air is also weird. Sabres are just awkward. Tossing swords sounds like a dance with danger. It is understandable that people initially shy away from it. The way to change that is to increase exposure to color guard and explain why we do what we do.”
Color guard began practicing their techniques over the summer and has been working on the winter show since November. It is the team’s dedication, paired with Coach Tiffany Quinones’s enthusiasm for the sport that has made them so successful, according to Mahoney.
“She is just as emotionally invested in this as we are and that’s what makes our school’s guard spark,” Mahoney said. “We have passion fueling us from the bottom of our stomachs to the tips of our fingers that comes across in our performances and leaves a lasting impression on the audience. That’s what guard is about.”
