On Saturday, March 9, the JV Color Guard attended their last competition at TCGC Davenport JV Regional A Championships at Davenport High School. The team earned first place in their division, which is a monumental accomplishment in the program’s history as this is the first time JV has come in first at a competition, let alone a championship.
Since it was their last competition, JV rehearsed rigorously leading up to this performance, perfecting choreography and changing certain parts of the show. Changes were made to parts of the show where judges from previous competitions critiqued the show for not being impactful enough. While changing choreography is a difficult task when muscle memory has already been built, the team took on the task in full stride.
“[Adding choreography] was pretty stressful since we had a few things that we still needed to learn for the championship,” Zain Berry ‘28 said. “I think the changes made the show different and challenging and showcased what the team was really capable of to the judges.”
Due to the increased volume of teams at this competition, the Scholastic JV Regional A classification was split into two divisions of ten teams each. The JV team came in first place with an impressive score of 76.66, their highest score of their season. While first in their division, JV came in 5th place overall in their classification, which is still an impressive feat.
“Everyone worked really hard and I think we definitely deserved getting first place,” JV Captain Michael Flagg ‘28 said. “I personally felt like I could have had a better final run, but I think overall the team still had a great run.”
While the Varsity Color Guard was pulled out of this competition due to Director Mark Istratie’s decision to focus on the JV’s final performance of the season, the Varsity team still accompanied JV to cheer them on. They helped with moving the team’s tarp and equipment, and provided moral support throughout the day.
“I think the JV [team] has been working really hard and has grown a lot throughout this year,” Varsity member Lily Chen ‘27 said. “I really liked the rifle and flag parts they worked on in their show and thought it made a good impact on the audience.”
With their competitive season now at an end, the JV are currently on a break from their usual rehearsal schedule. They will be performing their show Birds of a Feather one last time during the Color Guard community performance on April 7th.
