January 17, 2010

Maple Mountain High School Winter Color Guard (Or MMHSWCG, if you prefer)

As most of you know, I've been the color guard director at Maple Mountain High School in Spanish Fork for the past 9 months. Starting with summer band the end of last April through fall band finishing in November we're now two months into our Winter Guard season! And the season was started off quite strongly yesterday afternoon. This is my first season teaching winter guard and my second being involved with a winter guard. Needless to say, it has been both educational as well as stressful. I have a great group of girls to work with and I absolutely love each one of them. I haven't been able to say that about other groups elsewhere in the past. 

Anywho, I think I'll step back and start at the beginning of my day. I am running a show at BYU called "Tartuffe" this month. My friend, Kt, is the sound designer and has done a great job on it- I recommend seeing and hearing the show. (I hope you enjoyed my shameless plug.) We had a tech rehearsal yesterday that was supposed to run from 9-12 giving me the time to scoot out of Provo by 12:15 getting me to the school by 12:40 followed by a 1:00 departure from the high school. Let's guess how much of that happened.... I ended up leaving rehearsal at 12:35ish (leaving Kt-I felt bad about doing that to her) and getting to the high school around 1:30.  We then stopped so the girls could get some food and then carefully followed the speed limit. We got to the competition site in Salt Lake at about 2:50.
After getting checked in, we found our warmup location, ran through the routine a few times and then we were off! All the while, Craig and Laura gimping along behind us on crutches, both favoring right food breaks. (Laura broke her metatarsal while catching a rifle triple toss with her foot at practice on Friday morning.) The girls got in the gym, set up and in their places very quickly and professionally. The music started and they went for it! Laura included. She was able to do some of her swing flag work and then gimp off the floor. Everyone has been very supportive. The judges had some good suggestions for me as the designer and choreographer as well as for the girls and things that they can personally improve on. We have survived the first show and I am feeling much more confidant about my role as director as I now know more of what to expect! More stories of success about the Maple Mountain High School Winter Color Guard coming soon!

p.s taking suggestions for a group name as MMHSWCG doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. EWCG (Eagles Winter Color Guard)?

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