Everybody knows about the football team, but doesn’t realize what goes on during halftime. Color guard, along with the band, always puts on their best performance.

“If the marching band itself is like the soundtrack… color guard is the paint,” said Alexander Garcia, Assistant Band Director. “It’s the thing that catches your eye and draws your attention to a certain direction.”

There are many different aspects to color guard that most don’t take into consideration. They have to be able to dance and coordinate in a way to be visually appealing to an audience. It isn’t just waving flags around. 

“They use wooden rifles, they’ll use sabers or closer to swords, and they have their own technique and they have their own visual advantages right? For catching eyes,” said Garcia. 

Color guard doesn’t just perform at football games. In October, color guard will officially begin competing against other schools in the area. They have been practicing for months to prepare for their next big show: “I Am”.

“‘I Am’ is based around the seven chakras of meditation,” said Garcia. “You start at the bottom and kind of work your way up and then the top of your head up here is the last one or like self enlightenment.”

While color guard has been having a great year so far, they have had one big issue. Unfortunately, they are down to only 14 members. This year is supposed to be a rebuild for them.

“2022 was a really big class; a lot of people graduated,” said senior leader on the team, Kiarra Howard. “We’re looking for incoming freshmen and anyone who would be interested, you don’t have to have experience.” 

Despite these challenges students are looking forward to seeing them this year. Color guard puts in a lot of hard work and is a valued part of Oviedo High School.