Phoebe Kellenberger (11) takes a deep breath in, standing at the center of the mat, preparing to toss her rifle into the air at Color Guard’s first tournament of the season, Feb 28. As the music rises, she watches it spin upwards as she times her catch. The rifle lands in her hands with a snap, and the crowd erupts in cheers.

Color Guard placed third with a score of 74.22 at their home competition, performing their show titled “Her Midas Touch” where their props and costumes turn gold at the climax of the show. Color Guard competed in the Scholastic or intermediate high school division alongside Rancho Bernardo, Canyon Springs, Mt. Carmel, and Wasatch High school.

Kellenberger said their score was a good start to the season.

“Our score is broken up into four components from five judges,” Kellenberger said. “There’s equipment and movement, which is spinning and dancing, and those scores were on the lower side for us, but for the general effect scores, which is our overall show and how we performed it, we got first place. It gives us a lot of room to improve. Our lower scores are the ones that are more skill-based and technique-based, stuff that we have the chance to perfect over the season.”

Kellenberger said that the team was happy with how their performance went. The team started learning their show right after winter break and has been practicing for the two months leading up to the tournament.

“[Our performance] went really well,” she said. “We had a drop-less run, which is very rare for the first run. It was very rewarding to see our hard work pay off, and we had a really good run. As a group, our ending toss went really well. We haven’t had as much time to practice since it’s at the end, and it hasn’t been in the works for as long, so it was very nice to see it all come together as a group.”

In the past, Westview hasn’t performed as well at their home tournament, so approaching the competition, Kellenberger said the team had to overcome that increased pressure. Since they were performing later in the afternoon, the team had time to encourage each other and enter the right headspace before competing.

“We were there at 8 in the morning, and we were performing at 4, so we had a lot of time to prepare,” Kellenberger said. “This year, we tried to work on not thinking about that so that it didn’t affect our performance. And usually the first comp isn’t the best, so we joked a lot about how two negatives make a positive and that it should just be a good performance.”

Kellenberger said the purpose of the first tournament is to complete a full run-through and show off what they’ve been preparing, which the team used to channel optimistic mindsets.

“We talked a lot about performing for ourselves and not anyone else,” Kellenberger said. “A lot of the freshmen were very nervous for this [time], but we had a lot of time together to talk about how the first comp is our chance to show everyone what we’ve been working on, and that we have the entire rest of the season to make it better. It’s our show, and we deserve to show it off. The goal of the first competition is really, as our coach says, to get on the floor, get off the floor, and that nobody dies. We tried to focus on that headspace to change that nervous energy into positivity and excitement.”

Throughout performances, cheers from other schools’ color guard teams and spectators filled the stands as teams completed challenging tricks and choreography. Kellenger said that she appreciates how supportive other Color Guard teams are during tournaments because it helps keep an uplifting tone even though teams are competing against each other.

“The Color Guard community is really great,” Kellenberger said. “When you’re done performing, you go back into the gym and watch other schools. There’s a clap cheer that we do before every performance. We understand what other groups are doing more than parents or band kids, so we know when to clap. I think that it just makes the Color Guard universe very positive.”

With four more tournaments before the Winter Guard Association of Southern California (WGASC) championships and finals, Color Guard will continue to try to improve its technical skills and add more elements. Kellenger said she hopes the team can continue to develop its show and qualify for finals.

“We have a few more elements to add,” she said. “We generally don’t do everything at first comp, and, this year, we have the chance to make some of our skills harder, because we have more time to prepare. If we keep performing at the level that we’re performing, we have a good chance of making finals in April. That’s the goal.”

Westview’s third place finish at the first tournament marks the start of Color Guard’s competition season. Kellenger said she is proud of how the team has come together in performance.

“I’m very excited,” Kellenberger said. “I love the show. 

It’s very fun to perform, and generally, this year, I was nervous because we have a younger guard, but everyone’s stepped up into their role. I’m very proud of everyone.”