Fans cheered with excitement as flags flew at the Midwest ColorGuard Circuit hosted on February 5 at Naperville Central High School. It’s one of the country’s most prominent color guard events, and several Naperville teams participated in this year’s competition.
Naperville-area Color Guards took to the tarp
“We are hosting over 48 color guards here in Naperville today. It is part of the Midwest ColorGuard Circuit. We’ve got Naperville Central, we’ve got Naperville North, we’ve got the Stepperettes, the Stepperettes X Guard, we’ve got Perpetuum, we have the Naperville Central Middle School, and we have the Naperville Little Spirits,” said Debbie Wiles, director of the Naperville Central Color Guard.
The contest featured acts from competitive high school teams and younger, non-judged exhibition teams just starting their color guard journey.
“This is the future of color guard. This is the future of our program. So, it’s important to like get them hooked and bring them in and build their passion for things like this so that when they’re our high school age, they come back and they’re excited to do stuff like this,” said Naperville Central guard Lindsey Bellandy.
Color Guards look to perform and inspire
Performances ranged from the light-hearted to the more somber, and it was clear to all the passion and emotion put into their routines.
“Individually, a lot of people have different things that get them worked up. I think of my family to get me into the spirit, but our song is kind of about like the deep expression of sorrow and grief over a loved one. So it’s kind of difficult to dig deep and find that if you’ve never lost a loved one before. But that’s why guard is such a fun, like performance act, cause you really just got to find it out of nowhere and put it on a field for a bunch of people to see,” said Naperville Central senior guard Ezra Sopher.
Color Guard is a team sport
And their efforts paid off, with Naperville Central taking the top spot in the Scholastic Open division and Naperville North finishing within the top five of the Scholastic A division. But for those on the team, it isn’t the awards that make the experience so fulfilling, as much as the comradery they share.
“It means a lot because they’ve supported me through everything, and it’s time… They’re always there for me, even at practice… I’m leaving; next year is going to be hard, but I’m just going to keep in contact with all of them, and it’s a really good team and community, said Naperville North senior guard Lauren Wincup.
For Naperville News 17, I’m Marcel Francis
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