| Sky
View Color Guard makes west's 'top 10' list
By Angeline
Olschewski
Though you may have referred to your high school color
guard as the "cattle guard," the Sky View
High School Color Guard is a force that will not stand
for such slander.
"There was a time when it was like that,"
said Director Kelly Marshall. "I've been trying
to change that whole image over the past four years."
Recently the team returned from Bands of America, an
invitation-only regional competition, held at Northern
Arizona University where they placed in the top 10.
"We were thrilled to be one of the top 10 teams
in the western region," Marshall said.
With 43 members this year, Sky View had the largest
guard in the state. "People take you a whole lot
more seriously if you're a large group," Marshall
explained. "And I want a lot of kids to have the
opportunity to be in a group like this ... to have a
chance to belong somewhere."
Marshall explained that the larger the group, the higher
the difficulty. Difficulty is not scored on the Utah
circuit according to Marshall. "But for Bands of
America you don't even get considered without a difficult
routine," she added.
"The group we had this year was really amazing,"
Marshall continued. "They were really a team."
Sky View competed in and placed in eight competitions
this year including Bands of America.
Guard member Kiley Hamblin, a junior, called Bands of
America the best experience of her life. "After
our opener, we got a standing ovation and no other band
did," Hamblin said. "You could physically
feel the energy on the field." She noted that though
they placed tenth, as they left the stadium other teams
were telling them they "got robbed."
Hamblin is looking forward to her senior year with the
guard, hoping to participate in a leadership role. Initially
she joined the guard because her mother had been in
the color guard. "But then I absolutely loved it,"
she said. "You can tell who really wants to be
there and who's there just because."
There's a lot to gain by being on the team. "Participating
on the color guard team at Sky View has been a fabulous
experience for my daughter," Stephanie Hamblin
explains. "She has made lasting friendships, learned
team building and leadership skills.
"I am amazed by the number of hours all of the
students and their leaders volunteer," Hamblin
added.
Marshall estimates that she spends 1,500 hours on this
project each year; hundreds of those with the students
practicing and competing. So much time is spent together
that Marshall is often called "Mom" by her
team. "We accidentally call her mom because we
see her more than our real moms," Kiley Hamblin
said.
"I love it! I wish every one of them would call
me Mom," Marshall said. "They do become like
my kids and we really have become like a family."
While some may think color guard is a delicate sport,
Hamblin has a different opinion. To be on the guard,
"you have to have a very high threshold for pain."
This season alone saw a broken jaw, a broken nose and
a broken wrist.
"These kids are so conditioned," Marshall
argued, "I'd dare anybody to do what these kids
are doing. During the summer we'd start practice at
7 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. It's using every sense they
have to get this right. Every eight or 16 counts you
move to a new spot and you have to hit it exactly or
you'll run into another kid."
And if it's bad weather, it's incredibly painful. "When
it's cold and rainy and you catch the flag, it's like
catching a block of ice," Hamblin explains. "Your
hand fuses to the pole."
But Hamblin says it's worth it. "The crowd loves
us and that's what we care about." She added, "Sky
View brings home the crowd no matter where we go."
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