Color Guard: Failure Didn’t Define Us

by: Abigail Sell                           

“Failure didn’t define us” Summer Nelson captain of the Color Guard team said.  This phrase may not mean much to you, but for the Color Guard team this single phrase meant everything.  Color Guard is a sport that is not widely talked about at Delone Catholic but should be.  

This team of four girls radiated resilience.  To say that the team had a winning season would be a lie, but to say that these girls pushed through the struggles to do the best they could, is nothing short of the truth.

“It was the championship competition”  Summer said, “and we weren’t expecting much.”  The color guard had competed in previous competitions and had placed last every time. 

 “When it was time for awards I was already standing up to receive the award for twelfth place, but when another team was announced for twelfth place I was shocked, I think the whole team was” Nelson laughed.   “And the funny thing was, as I went to sit down we were all cheering.  It may seem dumb to cheer, hoot, and holler when we still didn’t know what place we got. For all we knew,” she said, “we might have gotten eleventh place.  But the even funnier thing is that we didn’t care.”

What happened next was nothing short of remarkable.  Another team got eleventh place, tenth place, ninth place, eighth place, seventh place, sixth place, and fifth place.  “Our team was literally going bonkers” Summer said.  “For the past how many competitions we got last, but now we knew that we had made the top five.  Not only was the team going crazy but the parents, coaches, and the crowd were getting hyped too. That was honestly one of the best things to see that day”  Nelson said, “seeing the crowd actually get excited for us.”

“I remember hearing third and fourth place announced and it wasn't us,” Summer said.  At that moment “I think I could talk for myself and my team when I say that all the struggles that we went through in color guard were made worth it.” 

Many people don’t realize how hard color guard is.  Obviously you would assume that it is physically taxing but as Summer said “it is more of a mental game than a physical one.”  Most color guards have eight to ten people so when you only have a group of four you are constantly mentally critiquing yourself because you know the judges see everything.  In a group of ten people it is easy to overlook a mistake.   If one person is half a step ahead of everyone else it is easier for the judges to overlook because you also have nine other people to be watching.  

But when you only have four people on a team the judges catch everything. There aren't other people covering you up or filling the gaps in the performance space so when you make a mistake, even if it is the smallest mistake that you could make, it becomes that much more visible.

Then the moment came, the announcer stepped up to the microphone, and Delone Catholics color Guard Team was announced as the second-place team.  “Most teams there would have been disappointed if they got second place, because they got so close to winning the championships” Nelson said, “ but when I looked at our team I knew we were proud of each other.  As a team we went through so many struggles. 

“We pulled out second place not because we were the best in the league, but because we had a closer bond than most teams there,” explained Nelson.  “Our bond allowed us to rise above failure.”