Of all the  sports programs in the school, color guard is the most underrated.  Color guards perform in front of hundreds of people to present a colorful and visual performance in the style of art, dance and theatre.

“Color guard, especially during the winter season, usually consists of a set theme for that year,” Former color guard member and current college student, Jai Lin Patterson said.  “Colors that go with that theme give it a reinforcement in its ability to portray a story or event. As for its visual element, the mixture of traditional dance, equipment use and props give it a sense of a theatrical performance.”

Color guard is an art because it is visually expressive. It presents color to whatever is being performed. In addition, the dance must all be in time and the music must match the dance.

Wikipedia.org states,”Guard members incorporate many different styles of dance into their shows. The most common styles of dance used are modern, contemporary, lyrical, jazz, and ballet. The different styles of dance are chosen depending on the different types of music chosen and the themes of the shows. Dance is usually incorporated into the equipment work, and is performed seamlessly throughout the show.”

Just like theatre, in order to perform successfully, the guard must have some sort of dramatic expression to tell a story.

“Since we are the physical representation of music, it is important that we as performers convey the story, mood and idea (s) that we want to show from the song,”junior Jordan Leyendecker said.  “Kind of like reading a book everyone takes something different away from it. We choose what we want our audience to see or feel and we over exaggerate it through our bodies using movements and facial expressions. Kind of like how you would rather talk to someone smiling slow and calm rather than jerky shouting and raging. And like at a dance slow songs people move slowly. Fast songs people move around more. You feel the energy in the beats.”

 According to Dictionary.com , the definition of a sport is, “An athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature. Color guard does many things that qualify as a sport.

“I believe that color guard is a sport because, we have to work together, it takes a lot of mental and physical energy, and we spend a lot of time doing it,” senior Garrett Snowden said. “If you look at all those things, we aren’t much different from other sports.”