McKinney Boyd High School Color Guard What Is Color Guard? Color Guard is a performance group at McKinney Boyd High School. The students in this group are members of the McKinney Boyd High School Band. There is often some confusion between color guard and band since our guard does not play instruments on the marching field. The color guard is a performing section of the band. Every student who is on the guard is a member of our band program even if they do not play an instrument. Without the band, the color guard would not exist. The guard is the general effect on the field, and the visual enhancement of the show. This is done through color, dance, and movement choreography. We visually depict what you would hear in the music. With the band you hear the music, but with the color guard you see the music come to life! The guard does this with all types of equipment that includes colorful flags, high flying rifles, elegant saber routines, and other various pieces of equipment that enhance the marching show visually. We also do this through choreographed dance. In the last 10 years the sport of color guard has evolved into a sophisticated dance team that combines both equipment and dance to create a dramatic visual performance. The Three Seasons Of Color Guard The year is divided into three seasons for the color guard. These are the Marching Season, Winter Guard, and our Training Season. Each season is a period of time in the year that each one of our students is asked to participate as members of the color guard. Marching Season August to November Winter Guard Season November to April Training Season April to August Marching Season The Marching season begins in August and lasts through October and into the first two weeks in November. This season the color guard participates with the McKinney Boyd HS Marching Band and is part of the halftime show. During this season the guard will follow the same schedule as the band. Anything the band does, the guard will do it too. This includes all rehearsals, football games, competitions, and parades.
Winter Guard Season The Winter Guard Season will begin at the conclusion of the marching season in November and last until April of the next year. Winter guard is an indoor competitive color guard activity that was first started in the early 1970 s. It has really grown in popularity over the years with thousands of students and young adults performing across the United States and in the world. The first two months of the winter guard season in November and December will consist of learning the competition show. In January until the first week of April, the guard will compete in various indoor competitions on Saturdays during these months. The guard will also continue to rehearse and perfect their show while competing at competitions in January through April. All rehearsals will be after school, but is not as time consuming as marching season. The color guard will meet twice a week after school as well as during their class period. Training Season (off-season) Many wonder if the kids ever get an off-season. The answer to that is yes! Our training season is our off-season. The girls do get a break from guard. There are not very many rehearsals, however we never stop training. We always strive to get better. From the period of April until August we will prepare for the next marching and winter guard season, however most of this time is dedicated to at home training. We would like for our students to relax and unwind, but we would also like for them to continue to practice. We will have various camps and rehearsals during this time, but they will be spread out throughout the months. We have one big camp in June that typically will begin the week after school lets out. We schedule the camp during this time so that our students can makes plans for vacations with their families throughout the summer. This camp is vital for the development of our vets and to train our beginners for the upcoming marching and winter guard seasons. The 2008 Training Season Has Begun Why do we train? Simple, so we can get better and put on the absolute best performance we can. Color guard is not an easy sport. It takes a large amount of hard work and hours of dedicated practice. We must begin the task of training our brand new members and get ready for our first performance in August. What will you learn? During the training season we will begin teaching our members the basics in movement and dance. We will also teach the basics on flag and on rifle. We will start slow and learn it right and we will leave no one behind. The guard staff will train our members on each piece of equipment and give them all the knowledge they will need to practice at home over the summer. It is up to our members on how good they want to be. The more they practice, the better they will get.
McKinney Boyd High School Color Guard Color Guard 2008 Spring and Summer Schedule May 2008 Date Activity Place Time 13 Mandatory Parent and Member Meeting Band Hall 7:00pm (Color Guard Only) 16 Color Guard Rehearsal and Cafeteria 5pm to 8pm Second Color Guard Audition For anyone wanting to join the guard who did not tryout in February 30 Color Guard Rehearsal Aux Field 5pm to 8pm 31 Color Guard Rehearsal Band Hall 8am to 11am Band and Guard Registration Cafeteria 11am to 12pm June 2008 9-13 MBHS Color Guard Camp Band 8am to 4pm Required for all MBHS Color Guard Members Hall/Cafeteria 19 Color Guard Summer Training Band Hall 8am to 4pm 26 Color Guard Summer Training Band Hall 8am to 4pm July 2008 3 Color Guard Summer Training Band Hall 8am to 4pm 10 Color Guard Summer Training Band Hall 8am to 4pm 17 Color Guard Summer Training Band Hall 8am to 4pm 24 Color Guard Summer Training Band Hall 8am to 4pm 31 Summer Band and Guard camp begins!! Marching Field 8am to 4pm
June Guard Camp Our big camp before the summer break is on June 9-13 from 8am to 4pm! The June guard camp is a week long training camp for all members of the guard. During this camp we will teach our members everything they need to know on dance, flag, and rifle. So why do we do this? It is because we want our students to take everything they learn at this camp and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!! Members have all summer to practice what we teach them. So why is this important? First is because the first football game will be coming soon. We know all of our students want to have a great performance. Secondly, when we return on July 31 st, we will have auditions for who will be on the A squad and who will be on B squad! This is where our members will show us what they can do. We will decide who does a dance feature, who gets a solo, who is on the flag line, and who is on the rifle line. If you want to be one of these, then you need to show to every rehearsal, practice everyday, and work very hard! Summer Thursday Rehearsals During the summer it is hard to remember everything that we teach our members. It is also hard to practice all of these skills without help. To help our students with this and to better prepare the color guard for the upcoming season, we will have rehearsals every Thursday in June and July from 8am to 4pm. During these rehearsals we will continue to train on equipment and dance and begin to teach the opening routine of the show. We also realize that our students and parents go on vacations or camps during the summer. That is great and we are not asking anyone to cancel their plans. Are these rehearsals required? Yes they are, if you are in town. If any student cannot show to one of our Thursday rehearsals because they are on vacation, we ask the parent or student contact us through email or send a letter from a parent, and let us know the days you will not be at the rehearsals. We will then write it down and make sure your student is not penalized in any way for being absent. Summer Band and Guard Camp This is when all 200+ students in the McKinney Boyd High School Band return from the summer to begin learning our show! The woodwinds, brass, drum-line, and the color guard will all be back at school training for our first football game and our competitions in October. Does it take this long to learn a show? Yes it does! Starting on July 31 st we will have rehearsals every weekday until the beginning of school. During this time we select who will be where on the field, learning the routine, and putting it on the marching field. Is it fun? YES!! You will have a great time learning the show and meeting so many cool people! And there are a lot of people to meet! We will have games, we will have parties, we will go swimming, and we will work hard!! You will be ready for your first game, and when that day comes you will look back and say, It was all worth it!!
The Summer Ends and School Begins! The first day of school will generally be the last week in August. The summer rehearsals will be over and the after school rehearsals begin. We would love to have the entire show completed before the first day of school, but it takes a very long time to learn the show and months to prepare. By this time we should half 25 to 50 percent of the show completed and ready to perform. We must have after school rehearsals in order to finish the show and begin cleaning and perfecting it for the football games and the competitions in October. After School Rehearsals Under UIL rules, a marching band may only practice 8 hours after school per week. We practice exactly 8 hours after school during the week. We must use this time to learn our show so it is vital that every student in the guard is present during every rehearsal. Missing a rehearsal after school will result in the student missing valuable information. UIL also allows us one extra hour of rehearsal time the day of a performance to run through our show and warm-up for our performance. Our rehearsal schedule is as follows. Monday 5:15 pm to 7:00pm Tuesday 5:15 pm to 7:00pm Wednesday No Rehearsal Thursday 5:15 pm to 7:00pm Friday 7:00am to 8:15am Supplies Needed For All Rehearsals The students in the guard will need to have some supplies for each one of our rehearsals. These are for various reasons, but mostly for the safety of our members. It gets hot in Texas and the student s safety is our number one concern. Here is the supply list for each student in the color guard. 1. Tennis Shoes 2. Socks 3. Guard gloves* 4. Comfortable shorts 5. Light t-shirt (light colors, preferably white) 6. Water Pack (NO exceptions)* 7. Equipment (rifle or saber)* 8. Drill Book* *Provided by band program through guard fees
Attendance Policy Being a member of the McKinney Boyd Band and Color Guard is a commitment and we have high expectations for all the members of the band and color guard. One of these expectations is that all of our members be at every rehearsal. When one person is missing from a rehearsal it affects everyone. It also affects the person that is missing as well. If the band has decided to learn 10 pages of drill in one day and if we had 10 people missing, then instead moving on and learning more drill during the next rehearsal, we have to go back and relearn all the drill again for those who were missing. The more we do this, the more we fall behind. The more we fall behind, the worse our show will become. We may never be able to clean the show, or even worse we may not finish the show in time for the first competition. That would be a disaster! This is why it is important that everyone be at our rehearsals. Our policy states - All members are required to be at all rehearsals, however a student may miss a rehearsal if the student is very ill and cannot participate, or if there is a family emergency. A Squad and B Squad (marching season only) So what is A squad and B squad and why do we have it? We split the guard into two separate squads. The A squad performs in football games, parades, and competitions. The B squad performs in football games and parades only, however they do come with us to competitions but they do not perform. We do this because of eligibility, ability to perform the routine, work ethic, and attendance to rehearsals. Several issues arise if we were to place everyone on the field. First, if one, two, or even five members were to fail during our first grading period, we would instantly have five holes on the field with no one to fill them. Second, if several members of our team did not understand the routine or decided not to work on it, then we would have no way of replacing them and our show would not be very clean for contests. These are just two of the many other problems that are faced when putting all members on the field during competitions. This is why we must have an A Squad and B Squad. The great thing is that every member of the guard will perform during marching season! Auditions For Squads During the month of August we will audition each member on the guard for selection on our squads. The requirements for the auditions will vary from year to year depending on the talent and skill level of the overall color guard. We will require each member to demonstrate for a panel of judges a demonstration of skills that they have prepared over the summer. Each member will be given the exact same skill to work on. NO member will ever be given something easier or harder. Every member will be required to demonstrate the same thing. All members will be given a list of skills they will need to work on before the audition. This list will be given out during the June guard camp and will also be available online throughout the summer.
Audition Requirements Every member is required to demonstrate these skills in an audition for placement in the squads. Failure to do so will result in that member automatically being placed on the B squad. All the skills that are required during the audition will be taught to every single member of the guard during the June guard camp and during the Thursday rehearsals in June and July. The guard staff will not require any skill that has not been taught to our members. The audition for the squads will be on flag and dance only. Weapons will be a separate audition. The rifle and saber line (weapons) will be determined by an additional audition after the squads have been selected. Only those on the A squad will be allowed to audition for the weapons line. The reason for this is because we want our entire weapons line performing during our competition shows. The weapons line is geared more towards our advanced members. This means that all members who would like to be on the weapons line must make sure that they are not only strong in weapons, but strong in dance and flag as well. Every member on the guard will receive weapons training. No one will be excluded, however your selection on the actual weapons line depends on you, and how hard you work on it. Any additional lines such as dance lines, prop lines, or solo and mini ensembles will also be by auditions and will be announced by the staff when the show permits it. Football Games, Competitions, and Parades This is the fun stuff and why our students work so hard. Football games occur on Friday nights during the months of September, October, and November. There are some Thursday games and some Saturday games. If the football team goes to playoffs, we will attend those games to support the team. Competitions are during the month of October. These typically will happen on Saturdays and will mostly likely happen all day. A complete schedule will be handed out to you before the marching season begins. Please do not schedule any family vacations during football games or competitions. There will be some parades scheduled in the fall. We typically do one to two parades a year. All itineraries for events will be posted online at www.boydband.org.
Winter Guard Season! The winter guard season will begin in November 2008 with rehearsals and more auditions. The auditions will determine positions in the show. We will audition each member for flag, weapons, and dance spots in the show, and the auditions will be in the same format as the squad auditions in August. There are no squads in winter guard, however as the guard gets bigger the entire color guard will be split into an A guard and B guard. This is due to competition rules that state no competing color guard may be over 30 members. Once our guard program exceeds 30 members, we will create two separate competing groups. Every member performs in the winter guard show, however grades, work ethic, and punctuality may determine where in the show a student will be. Winter Guard Rehearsal Schedule The color guard will rehearse during winter guard season on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting in November. There may be some Saturdays scheduled for clinicians to come and teach the guard. This is all tentative and subject to change. The exact winter guard season schedule will be released in August of this year. When the schedule is released, we will give the exact dates of all rehearsals and competitions for the school year. The reason we cannot release this earlier is because the competition schedule is not released from NTCA (North Texas Color Guard Circuit) until August every year. NTCA and WGI NTCA (North Texas Color Guard Association) is the regional organization that governs all the competitions held in the North, East, and West Texas areas. Each one of the competitions are held in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. Other competitions are held in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio however those competitions are run by separate guard organizations based in those areas. NTCA host the circuit state championships during the 1 st week of April every year. McKinney Boyd competes in this contest every year. WGI (Winter Guard International) is the national organization that governs all the regional organizations in the United States such as NTCA or TCGC in the Houston and Austin areas. WGI holds national regional championships and the world championships every year. These contests are the highest level of competition a guard can attend in the United States. Making finals in a Regional Championship or the World Championships is considered an extremely high honor and a great accomplishment since the level of difficulty is so high. Winning a regional or national championship is the highest honor a color guard may achieve. MBHS currently does not compete at this level, however the guard plans on competing in regional championships in the near future. We also hope to one day to compete in the world championship.
A Guard and B Guard The WGI rules state that any competing winter guard must be between the 5 to 30 members. We cannot exceed over 30 members in a winter guard show. We are currently under 30 members in the guard, however we will not stay there for long. Once the MBHS color guard reaches over 30 we will form an A guard and a B guard. Both groups are ability based groups with the more older and more experienced members on the A guard. The A guard is an advanced group for more experienced members that can handle more complex routines, integrated movements, and highly developed training. The B guard is made up of our younger members where we continue with basic training, develop their movement skills, and enhance and grow performance based characteristics. These will be two separate groups with two separate shows based upon the abilities of their members. This is much like a varsity and junior varsity group or 1 st and 2 nd band in a concert band program. Hosting a Winter Guard Competition At Boyd We are currently looking into hosting a winter guard competition at McKinney Boyd High School. The recent new construction has made Boyd the perfect place to host a monumental winter guard competition in the future. We will need LOTS of volunteers for this event! We are looking into hosting a contest this year or next year. More information about the event will be coming soon! Color Guard Officers No Pass / No Play We will have color guard officer positions available in the future, however we will not have officers for this coming school year. The band staff believes that because of the age and experience level of our current color guard, the guard is just not quite ready for student leadership just yet. Typically student leaders are older members that are juniors and seniors with several years of experience. Our color guard this year is almost all freshmen. We will look into having officers in the future, however asking a current member to lead a color guard would be way too big of a job for a young student. Officers in the color guard comprise of a Captain, a Senior Lieutenant, and one or two Junior Lieutenants. Color guard is a no pass / no play organization and does abide by the TEA and UIL laws of no pass / no play. The rule states that any student who does not pass their classes with a 70 or above in any classes may not participate in any extra-curricular activities. This means if a guard student fails, they cannot participate in any football games, pep rallies, competitions, parades, or winter guard contests. If a student fails a class, that student will lose their spot in the show and will affect their spot in the next show if there is no improvement with their grades.
Volunteers Have you ever wanted to get involved? Well now you can!! We cannot function without the help of our parents! We need volunteers. This is not for us, this is for our students and if you have some extra time, we would love for you to come and help out! There are several jobs that we have throughout the year. It does take time out of your day, but it is all worth it to see the smiles on your child s face when they perform! By volunteering, you will be right by there side. Even though they say they may not want you there, I promise that deep down inside they want you there every second!! Volunteer Jobs 1. Flag Sewing Moms We need help to sew our flags. This is a big job, but the more parents we have the easier it is to do. We could purchase our flags from a company, but it would cost us thousands of dollars. Buying the fabric and making it our selves is 10 times cheaper. This would be a summer job for those who could do it. If you can sew, PLEASE help!! 2. Chaperones This is simple! You show up to the games, contests, or winter guard contests and help us take the students on trips. You get to ride the bus and hang out with the kids! Trust me it is A LOT of fun! You will love it! If you are interested, please sign up! 3. Hair and Make-up Crew Sometimes it is hard to get ready so quickly before a football game. This is where our talented moms can help our ladies! If you like doing hair or putting on make-up then our girls will love you! If you do this, we ask that you also help chaperone too, however if you cannot chaperone and you would like to help the girls, that is ok too. 4. Equipment and Pit Crew Here are some jobs for our dads! These girls need help carrying their equipment around and the percussion needs help too. The guard staff is not in charge of this. We have some very talented band dads in charge of this one! If you want to help, just sign up and I promise you will get a phone call soon! 5. Uniform Cleaning Squad This one is simple too. Uniforms get smelly and they need cleaning. If we asked the girls to clean their own uniforms they might come back in different shades of red. Who knows! This is why we ask some of our dedicated parents to take home our uniforms and stick them in your washing machines. Yes, it s a dirty job, but we hope someone will do it!