“Joining color guard has really shaped what I want to pursue in the future and what career I want,” junior Kevin Schupman said. “I knew I liked color guard since I was little because I saw them at football games and it was so cool watching them. I wanted to do it for so long. Going into freshman year I was watching the Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps and I was just in awe because I hadn’t done a marching season yet. I went into my first year just so amazed and I was like I have to do that. Last year I got absorbed into marching band and Drum Corps International [DCI] and I really started to understand the competition, all the elements of design and how big the staff teams are, I just wanted to be part of it. Going into the second semester [of freshman year Mrs. Brookhart], held winter guard auditions and I made the team. My first year on color guard was mentally and physically challenging. Now the equipment side of it comes a lot easier to me. The physical side of it gets crazier every year. My sophomore year we had to start the show hanging upside down off a bridge. This year I had to climb the bridge up the side of it and we flagged up there then we had to run down it. Winter guard International [WGI] is a virtual competition that’s solo. You write your own choreography, direct it, pick out what song you want to do and practice it over and over. It shows your technical and design skills. Going into prelims I placed first with my solo Swan Lake. Then in finals the swapped judges and I got third. WGI helped me understand different programs outside of my own, like different techniques, how students design and perform.”