Color Guard Prepares for Another Year

The Fair Grove Color Guard has spent the last several weeks at clinics learning choreography in order to prepare for tryouts for the upcoming season next year.

Hadie Wingo (10) has been in color guard for the past two years and is trying out again for next year. She said the clinic involves teaching basic flag movements for those who are new, which also serves as a review for those who have done color guard before.

“At the clinic we learn things like drop spins, windspins, and the choreography for Fair Grove’s Fight Song that we play at football games,” Wingo explained. After the clinics and learning the choreography, those trying out filmed themselves performing what they learned and sent it to the color guard sponsor, Audra Harmon, and their choreographer, Anita Newlan. These two will then go over all the tryout videos and work together to decide who they think is best fit for the guard.

Reese Wells (9) is also involved with cheer and said that although color guard can be stressful at times combined with other sports, it is a lot of fun and very rewarding. “Doing both cheer and color guard can be stressful because there are days where you will have both activities in the same day,” Wells explained. She added that the same conflicts can happen during tryouts if you are involved with a spring sport such as track, softball, baseball, or soccer.
“I tried out this year because despite all the stress, color guard is super fun and I enjoy making friends with all my team members,” Wells said.

Wingo said she plans on participating in color guard at least until she graduates and also talked about some of the differences between her first year and this past one. “This past year was different from my freshman year because we were able to actually go to competitions and compete against other bands,” Wingo explained. Wingo also commented that this year, she got to know members of the band as well as members of the guard better. She says she really enjoyed the time she got to spend with them.

Finally, Wingo added, “Anyone can try out! We’re very open to everyone and would love to see more people interested in color guard!”