2023-2024 Color Guard Season Tryouts

The 2023-2024 season is coming with a fast approach especially for the Walnut Grove Marching Band Color Guard Members. 
by Norah Griffin

The week of March 27th, 2023, Color Guard members will be trying-out for a spot on the upcoming team. Twenty girls showed up across two Tuesdays, March 14th and March 21st, learning new skills. Everyone had a positive attitude towards it with an amazing outcome. During the tryout process, the girls learned a flag routine as well as a dance routine. They then performed this in front of a panel of judges on Thursday with a small group. 
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Both veterans and rookies are having different feelings about tryouts. Sophomore veteran Carlie Roberts is “nervous [for tryouts] because there's a lot of new people, but if [she] makes it, [she will] be so happy.”

With freshman rookie Zoe Higdon, she feels “very nervous because [she doesn’t] really have any experience, but [she] feels like [she has] caught on [and is] so nervous but excited.”

It's gonna be hard and it's a lot of work, but it's going to be worth it -Carlie Roberts

While everything has a new beginning, there are many memories that we reminisce in during guard. Freshman vet Jordan Roberts recalls “getting ready for the games beforehand” was a memorable experience. Carlie enjoyed “competition because [she] was with all of [her] friends and [they] had a lot of fun and [they] won.”

All rookies first start off not knowing what Color Guard is and what they are capable of. But with the 2 spin-days, all of the rookies have a feeling under their belt of what color guard is.

Freshman rookie Alysia Tolar states, “It made me feel like I can actually do it [and] it didn't seem that hard. It felt good.” Freshman rookie Mimi Cabrol feels really good about trying color guard and trying out something in action, “It's pretty cool.”
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All that said, behind every group of girls doing guard, there is an amazing team of instructors. Mrs. Merck looks forward to seeing “all the new potential and how the new people work with the vets, kind of how they work together and just bounce off each other with ideas and energy.” While Jordan “look[s] forward to getting to know new people and getting to make new memories with them.”

​And Freshman rookie Kassidy Harris is looking forward to making the team but “sad because it's like you have to go to band camp in July.”