Dayton 2014
The West Milford Color Guard took an exciting trip to Dayton, Ohio on Wednesday the 2nd of April to compete in the WGI (World Guard International) world championships.
The trip started in the early morning loading into the “Beiber mobile” and heading off to Ohio. The long trip was filled with laughter as the whole team bonded on their way to what was surely their best performance. Filled with plenty of rest stops and music blasting, the time flew by and “before we knew it we were there,” says Sophia Souran.
Once the team arrived in Dayton, Ohio they stopped for food, checked into the hotel, and rested. After a short rest period they headed off to a brief practice where they performed their hearts out. Filled with excitement, the team returned to the hotel and rested for the night.
The morning of competition started off fairly early. After having breakfast, the color guard went to another short practice before going to the Wright State University’s Nutter Center for the preliminary rounds. Once arriving to the arena, the guard headed straight off to 16 minutes worth of a quick body and equipment warm up. The time for warm up flew by in a second. Before the team knew it, it was on the floor for competition. After being the guard was announced, they unfolded the floor, and set up their equipment, they took their places for competition. The whole performance went by so fast and with tears in everyone’s eyes knowing that they had an amazing run and season in whole, they walked off the floor, packed it up, and headed off to the hotel.
After staying at the hotel for a short while, the guard returned to the main arena to find out they placed 10th in their round for their division. Sadly, the guard did not make it to the second round by a few points, but they all knew that they gave it all they had throughout the season and finally at the preliminary round.
The guard, however, had a slight victory in their hearts from placing above their competitor Arlington who had taken the gold medal the week before in the MAC (Music of the Arts) championships. The guard stayed for most of the remainder of the four day event to watch other color guards and to be inspired for the season to come next year. After watching some West Milford Color Guard alumni Vince Vanhovel and Alex (Sasha) Keating both make it into finals with their Independent A Class Guard “Emanon A” the guard cheered and went to have dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse. The next morning consisted of watching some more color guards perform and heading home a day early at noon.
The whole indoor season of Color Guard was filled with many victories and scores that kept climbing up. This season the Color Guard has made it into finals at the WGI Eastern championships and placed above other guards who did not make it past the preliminary round. The guard members are also now silver medalists placing in second in the MAC (Music of the Arts) championships. The whole season has been a good run with many fantastic performances filled with dedication. The West Milford Color Guard is a tight knit family that shows what hard work and dedication can do. The Indoor Color Guard is now also looking for members in the next school year’s outdoor season.
