The school year hasn’t even finished and members of the color guard are already preparing for the 2018-2019 season. Tryouts were held last month and rehearsals for the team began at the beginning of this month. 

The new season started with a new director, dance instructor, and routines.

Charlie Bourrage, the new guard director, is determined to make sure every guard member understand how to do everything that is needed to be performed for shows and competitions in the fall. With 3-hour long rehearsals, twice a week, along with homework video assignments, Bourrage hopes this impacts the color guard members positively for learning every dance and all the techniques in time.

Dale Robinson, the new color guard choreographer and technician, created a strict conditioning routine before actual rehearsals to assure everyone is stretched and prepared.

Within just the two rehearsals in one week, color guard as a whole have already learned a few exercises thoroughly, like a flag up/down exercise, a drop spin exercise, and a flag prayer toss.  

To ensure that every individual member is on track on learning these exercises, Bourrage assigned a video homework assignment over the weekend. Everyone was expected to film themselves practicing each exercise and post it on the private Facebook Color Guard group page.

Bourrage and Robinson were then able to watch all of the videos and comment on what needed to be worked on or changed.

One of the color guard members, junior Savannah Pate (11), said that the video assignments are beneficial especially to those who have missed a day of rehearsal because it can catch them up.

“The video assignments are helpful because if someone missed a day they can watch any of the videos and get caught up,” Pate said. “Also, at the end of the season, we can look back and see much we improved.”

Though this year might seem a little hectic and filled with a bunch of new techniques, members are still extremely excited for the new season.

“My goal this year is to learn new things and improve the things I already know. Also, I want to perform the best I can to keep my spot all season,” Pate said. “Last year I made a lot of friends and the competitions are cool so I hope this season is just like last season but better.”