An Introduction to Color Guard

Color guard is a team sport that combines dance, music, and props like flags and rifles to create a big performance at home football games. This year the theme of the color guard performance is Ragnarok and one of the captains, James Bohnenkamp said, “It’s such a fun show, we get to show such a range of emotion in it, and I think it’s really impactful. Also, it allows our outfits and our flags to have really cool designs”. The performance starts off with everyone living happily and peacefully together, until a meteor shower hits and everyone starts to fight each other. In the third song everyone is sad and all of their world is destroyed. The final song is all chaos and destruction even though they were recently living in a paradise. The whole color guard team really enjoys this theme and Karmyn Blanchard, a junior on color guard said, “I like the theme this year because it has a lot of possibilities to work with and sparks a lot of ideas for drill and choreography.”

Additionally, color guard is more than just a big performance at football games, it is also a community for the members. All of the students that participate in color guard are extremely good friends and love to work hard for each other. A new member of color guard this year named Allysen Lott said, “I very much look up to our captains James Bohnenkamp and Kai Jenkins. They are very resilient and I can tell they enjoy what they do. Sometimes I’ll see them mess up and make a mistake but they always get back up and try again. Even though they are our captains they are never afraid to ask for help from others and I really respect that.” Although they have to work hard to create the show for half time, they love to work together as a team to make it perfect for everyone watching. James Bohnenkamp said, “My favorite part about color guard is just getting to do something I love with people I love. The community is so nice, my section feels like a family to me, and I get to perform.” Color guard is an amazing activity for any student that wants a fun and positive extracurricular activity to participate in throughout the school year.

The whole band travels to competitions in Minnesota, Omaha, Pella, Valley, and Waukee. They get to go as a whole team and do fun things like the mall of America in Minnesota and spending time as a team. The whole band loves to go to these competitions and compete to win the first place spot against all the other schools. Getting the opportunity to travel and take the whole Waukee band out of state and around Iowa is a big deal for Waukee and a really fun additional activity to color guard. Although color guard can be really hard work and takes a lot of time and effort, it is a great team environment and a really fun activity for any high school student. Allysen Lott is extremely passionate about color guard and said, “I will be continuing in color guard, even though it’s very difficult and sometimes it feels like I can’t improve. I always end up in the better and manage to do better than I initially thought. I have met so many wonderful people and made so many friends because of it. I am definitely staying in color guard for all of high school”. Even as a member of color guard she accepts her mistakes and knows she will end up growing for the better each day, because of her supportive team and perseverance to improve.