The crowd of the roaring arena excitedly cheers to see colorful flags wave across the field. As the band blares their music, the lights fall at the center of the stage and the color guard performance begins. 

The color guard program will perform their new show tomorrow at Hayes High School. The winter guard has been continuously working on perfecting their show for several months, according to color guard captain Peyton Perrone.

“When performing, we’re able to show off all of our hard work to an audience and put on a good show,” Perrone said. “It’s fun knowing people come to competitions just to see you perform because they love the energy of the show. It feels really exciting stepping onto the floor and getting ready to show off. It almost gets hard to control your adrenaline so you have to stay calm and do what you know” 

Alongside the band, the color guard is one of the main visual attractions during football games and band performances. The staff, including director Casey Kunze and two to three choreographers, help teach intricate tosses and acrobatic tricks.

“We have never had one performance where everyone was dissatisfied and upset about how we did,”sophomore Sofia Campos said. “We always came back screaming and crying, not because of dissatisfaction, but because of what we had just experienced, the inevitable rush and the feeling of greatness.”

The color guard team is back-to-back-to-back-to-back UIL 5A State Marching Band Champions. Their program focuses on community, hard work and time management skills.

“Our state finals performance was electrifying but also a little scary because the audience was completely full,” Perrone said. “The audience went wild for the first hit and you could feel the field light up. As a senior, it was so fun to perform one of our last shows knowing that when we got off the field we had performed the best we could.”

The theme for the state band competition was “Eye See,” which focused on band history using music from previous years. The band program integrated multiple older shows and used a symbol of a triangle eye. This represented the band program being a new band after the unfortunate effects of COVID-19. The color guard wore different shades of blue and purple with the band logo on their chest.

“Performing at state was one of the best feelings of my life,” Campos said. “I love the crowds and the adrenaline, being in front of the percussion during band season and hearing the drums through your chest and the beats hitting every part of your body and really feeling the music of the band while performing.” 

Color guard rehearses every Monday, Wednesday and occasional Saturday. Their rehearsal takes place in the high school cafeteria, but sometimes they use the middle school gym to rehearse. The program has not performed since the fall season but continues to learn from designers and choreographers about new drills for their upcoming show. They started preparing for this show since last semester and the show is called “The Current Between Us.”

“We have been on the grind trying to put the last few details together,” Perrone said. “We have been working since early November to put in drill, choreography, and performance together. Our season lasts until late March so we’re going to continue to practice a lot and hopefully reach our full potential.”

Color guard uses flags and costumes that correspond with a certain theme for the performance, where they perform dynamic dances with their flags with the band. Tomorrow’s performance will display incorporate shades of blues and greens and will showcase lightning bolts. 

“We have had many choreographers come in who have worked with amazing world-class guards,” sophomore Ava Perrone said. “They teach us dance, saber, rifle, and flag choreography and we learn new tricks and tosses. We love all of the people putting their time into our new skills at our upcoming show.”

The team hopes to grow in members and grow the community. They’re always looking for new members and are always interested in recruiting for the 2022-2023 season.

“The community is overall very positive,” Sophomore Lily Dodds said. “We’re constantly helping each other and making sure we are improving. We all look out for each other and I definitely don’t think I’d be as advanced as I am without the people around me.”