The golden guard of Lee’s Summit High School: a new era. Color Guard captain senior Emma Bergsten talked about the changes to the team over the years, outlining an improvement.

“I just feel like we’ve been so much closer this year, and there hasn’t been a grade divide between seniors and juniors and the other people. We’ve all just been very integrated. I feel like we’ve gotten closer, because there used to be a very big divide, but I feel like we’re kind of making a unity out of it, instead of trying to divide ourselves,” Bergsten said. 

Practices for the team are year-round. They usually don’t take breaks and split off into sections and train.

“We always sit down and talk about what’s coming up and what we need to work on. And then we break off into two different sections, rifles and flags, really like working on technique and cleaning the choreography we have. And then we come together and go through everything we need to go through as a whole group,” Senior River Lamplante said.

New team members expressed a friendly environment on the team, giving them an incentive to stay on the team.

“I got into color guard my junior year when they held auditions for Winter Guard, and I made it onto the JV team. And what made me stay was all the nice people and the passion for the sport,” Senior Lily Vrentas said. 

Golden Guard Team members expressed methods on how they handled stress and nerves regarding competitions. 

“Most people are really afraid of the crowds and the size. But I’ve never actually found myself afraid of how many people there are, but I always get really nervous when it’s people I know, even if there’s like, two people in the crowd that I know out of like 1000, I kind of just, I don’t know. I block it out. I replace, substitute the emotion, I guess, with my performance,” Bergsten said.

Beyond guard evolution, Bergsten had more tips for beginners. 

“I would definitely talk to somebody that’s on the team, because if you show up to tryouts, then that’s great. And you’re gonna already have some experience just from a couple of days of clinics,” Bergsten said.