The Flower Mound High School winterguards’ varsity and junior varsity teams recently ended their springtime performances with flying colors. The varsity team,
coming in 5th place out of 133 groups with its show “Nocturne,” and the junior varsity
team, with its show “Come Fly With Me,” returned home to Flower Mound, Texas after competing at the Winter Guard International World Championships, a nonprofit organization that coordinators competitions for international winterguard and percussion groups. The competition was held April 10 – 12 in Dayton, Ohio at the University of Dayton Arena.
With a score of 94.5 during its Scholastic A class final’s performance, the Flower Mound varsity team topped its North Texas Colorguard Association state championship win and wrapped up its undefeated season. The score was the highest of the season and the highest in Flower Mound’s winterguard history.
“Winning is not so important,” said Darla Turner, Flower Mound’s head colorguard instructor, when asked whether the team set out to have an undefeated season. “[The other instructors and I] are always only about how good is the performance.” She adds that although winning is fun, at any time there may be other winterguard teams who get simply get better scores.
Fortunately for Flower Mound, no team in its division in Texas, National A, received a higher score this season to take their place in stardom. “Nocturne,” featured 13 varsity team members performing as stars coming out in the night. The perfect combination of the beauty and power of a star, the Flower Mound girls performed their show with the grace of ballerinas, the beauty of stars in the moonlight and the skill of the strongest athletes. Performed to Frederic Chopin’s “Nocturne” played by Joshua Bell, their skill in catching tosses of “sabres,” “flags,” and “rifles” would impress any athlete, but they had the added value of simultaneously executing intricate ballet and dance techniques while invoking the emotion of a theatrical performer. When the theme was selected last fall, no one knew that the team would go on to become stars.
“The girls becoming stars was a by-product of their performances, but there was never an express goal to ‘become stars,’ ” says Turner. “We wanted the girls to be more than just pretty kids dancing to pretty music. When we were originally thinking of ideas for the show, we thought of things that come out at night.” At the same time, Turner says she came across an image that would help them create the guard’s floor. Once the floor was picked, it was evident that the girls should be stars. She adds that they didn’t want to overdo the star theme – there are only subtle references to stars in the show.
Flower Mound’s junior varsity team also flew across the charts during its season. It consistently won competitions in its class and was promoted three times this year from Scholastic AAA to Scholastic AA to Scholastic A – which was eventually split in two groups – to National A, bringing it into direct competition with the varsity team. The junior team received a score of 74.7 during its Scholastic A preliminary competition in the international contest. The show, with music “Come Fly With Me” by Michael Bublé and “Blue Skies” by Bobby Darin, featured 13 junior varsity girls as flight attendants – an irony that would be played out as both teams struggled to get to the world championships in Dayton.
Their flight problems began with the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to ground Boeing MD-80s for inspection. To further exasperate the situation, on April 10, just as the teams prepared to leave for the World Guard International competition, tornado watches and warnings in the North Texas area caused more cancellations of flights. The cancellation of their flight left the instructors and parents scrambling to find last minute tickets (which had now doubled in price due to the numerous amounts of cancellations).
“I just cried [when] I got a phone call that the flights were cancelled,” said Turner.
“When I first heard [about the cancellations] the only thing that passed through my head was, ‘This is not happening,’ ” said Chelsey B., junior varsity team member. “Then I remembered what my instructor had said to us the previous week before championships: he told us to perform to the fullest, because we never know if this could be our last performance. So I looked back and decided that my championship performance was just the kind of performance that I would like to end the season with (even though fortunately I did not have to).”
The teams ended up having to get to their destination on 3 different flights at 3 different times to make it to Dayton. The final group arrived so late that the junior varsity team missed its performance time. Fortunately, for them, another group was unable to perform in their time slot (also due to weather and travel difficulties), and the junior varsity team was able to take that group’s spot in performing.
“This year’s WGI competition was such a great learning experience,” said Tamara C., junior varsity team member. “It was a blast to be with my friends and to be able to perform at world championships. Also, seeing the open and world guards really inspired me to do better as an individual and as a guard.”
While most people would think performing is the hard part, the Flower Mound year-long struggle was no easy catch, and the Dayton travel tribulations were just the end of a long tunnel to stardom. Having first visited Dayton, Ohio in the summer of 2007 as volunteers for that year’s international championships, 6 girls began planning a strategy to perform in Dayton.
Steve Turner, Flower Mound High School colorguard instructor and president of the North Texas Colorguard Association, discussed how the girls began putting in extra practice time during the summer to prepare themselves to compete in Dayton. Over the remainder of the fall, they continued their efforts to stretch themselves further and had a spectacular season performing with the marching band. At the end of their fall colorguard season, the group began to shift their focus from marching band season and back to Dayton.
In December, [the instructors and I] had the girls make a list of 3 goals that they had for themselves in upcoming winterguard season to make it to [World Guard International],” says Turner. “We didn’t ask to see it, but we did ask them to post it somewhere easily visible, like a mirror. Throughout our winterguard season, we would remind them periodically to look back those goals made in December.
In the days leading up to the championship competition, nerves and excitement filled the veins of the team. Members of both teams discussed their feelings after the winterguard’s “Send Off to Dayton” performance on April 7.
“I’m so excited to be going to Dayton that I can’t even put it into words,” said varsity team member Laura Le.
“I’m so nervous; we’ve never done anything this big and we’ve never been in an arena so huge,” said varsity member Katy Chandler. “I’m really excited [about going to Dayton], but I’m really nervous.”
“When I get to Dayton, I’m going to perform beyond anyone else’s ability and try my hardest,” said varsity team member Kaitlyn Toubekis.
For all the Flower Mound fans, the winterguard will not be returning to Dayton next year: a school district policy limits groups to attending out-of-state events to every other year. However, Turner says that during the 2010 winterguard season, the instructors will gage that team’s level to see if it is ready to compete again in the Dayton championships.
To qualify to compete in the April championships, a winterguard team is required to perform at a World Guard International regional competition, which Flower Mound High School did at the Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas regional competitions. That guard does not have to get a specific score, although most guards who attend only invest that time and money if the team feels it can compete well.
More than 300 winter guards from the U.S., Canada and England competed in the World Guard International championships.
