Have you ever heard of color guard? Well, it’s a fun performing group that dance and spin equipment along side the band during football games.

Rachel Crawford is on her second year of the color guard.  Although, she said she started a month after everyone else her first year, so she was a little behind.

“It took me about 3 to 4 weeks to learn how to spin,” said Crawford. “But with practicing at home and at school with the group I can now spin a flag, a rifle, and a saber.”

In color guard they dance and do choreography through the band on the field. Sometimes the guard dance all together and as a group, but a lot of the time they are in different groups going around and through the band. In order to learn all of the dance moves and spinning of the equipment, Crawford devotes a lot of her time to color guard.

She practices everyday of the week at 7am, except on Thursdays because of late arrival. On Thursdays and Tuesdays from 6-9pm they have night rehearsal and occasionally they have practice on Saturdays.

She said that color guard is super fun, but it can also be frustrating at times. Like, when she’s doing something wrong and tries to fix it but just can’t seem to get it right. If that ever happens, she normally tries to ask someone if they can help her and then she figures it out.

Although, color guard does take up a lot of her time so she has to manage her time wisely so that she can still finish her homework on time and do the other things that she needs to do.

She is very proud of being on color guard and said she loves performing and showing everyone what they do, although she said it is nerve-racking being up on the stage in front of everyone.

“When you are one of the most experienced on the team, you can become a section leader,” Crawford said. “The section leaders job is to show up to every practice early and make sure everyone is where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be. They also decide hair for the football games.”

In order to be a section leader you have to write an essay about how you would make a good section leader and what you would do if you were one. Crawford tried out to be a section leader last year, but sadly one of the other girls got it.

“Since joining guard, i’ve made so many new friends and they have made me want to work harder and get better at everything,” Crawford said. “I’ve figured out that there’s always going to be someone better than me, but it’s just motivation to try harder.”