Finally Back

It has been a WHILE since I have been able to post. But I am back....Finally!

Since the last update...winter guard for Willard was just crazy busy and the season flew by. Both the Middle School and the High School had great seasons.....both finishing 2nd in their class and receiving the Silver Medal! I hope the girls were happy with how the season finished up....I know I was very proud of both groups.

After the winter guard season the decision for me to move to KC was made.....which made things even more frantic and busy. With the move coming up I really didn't have a guard lined out to work with so I didn't have much to post at the time. There were a few programs that may have had openings, but I just had to wait till I was actually up in KC and could meet with people.

During the summer I spent my time moving.....one on my least favorite things to do. But I also was able to work with Lindsey Hansen on a couple of her guards. I was able to help her out with the Blue Springs Color Guard and the Webb City Color Guard....which was more fun then I even anticipated! Lots of energy and enthusiasm working with a designer like Lindsey, I hope to do it again next summer!

I also worked with the Salem Color Guard again this summer. This was my 3rd season with them. Each year gets better and better and I am looking forward to seeing how they are next year.

By the end of the summer I was asked to come on staff at Park Hill South to help with their color guard. The band director there has been there now for 3 years and is taking them in a great direction. I am having a great time working with him as well as the color guard sponsor.

The girls are great as well....energetic and willing to work! I have high hopes for them and some big dreams for their future seasons!

That's about it for now. Good Luck to all the Marching programs and their seasons this fall!

4 Days and Counting...

We have 4 days till our next competition! Super excited!

Practice went really well this morning for the High School girls. We finished our new ending and also worked the beginning.

We are trying to work our way through our big moments of the show this week. Making sure those are as strong as they can be for the weekend. No big changes with the snow hitting the other week and cutting out 6 of our 8 rehearsals.

The Middle School will be adding on their ending today as well. Then we will work through the show and try to detail as much as we can....without maxing out their brains!

MS Guard this Friday

For the first time the Middle School Winter Guard did a full run through of their 2011 show! We still need to add on the ending and fill in a few transitions....but it is still pretty full!

I'm so proud of them! They are doing a great job!

This coming week we will just get the girls more and more comfortable with the show, clean up some transitions, teach Bethany (the girl that walks through the diagonal) her solo, and put on the ending.

I cant wait for the Parkview show! Wish them luck! : )

Crazy Week!

I meant to video the Middle School's run through last night.....but I have been all over the place this week and my camera died 1 minute into the show!

With all the snow days and Late Start days.....I just cant seem to get back into the swing of things. I don't normally "forget" to do thing. I plan things out and get the job done, but this week I have dropped the ball on a couple occasions!

We have MS rehearsal tonight so I will try to video their run though, again! It is super cute! There are a couple empty ish places, but I don't want to max them out, so we will probably leave them that way for the Parkview show. Wish them luck!!!

Dedication

A couple weeks ago something that has never happened to me, as an Instructor, actually happened. A girl on my guard was injured! Like....really bad.

It is a long story, one that I feel like I have told a million times because everyone wants to know what happened. But to make a long story short, one of our best middle school girls broke a growth plat while she was doing the splits. Crazy!

This girl is nothing like I have ever taught before in my life. I am going on 8 years of teaching color guard now....and she is amazing. Completely fearless and dedicated to the team and the activity. She practices all the time and after only a couple months on rifle...can throw a quad. And not like what you might be thinking...were she just chucks it up in the air. She has perfect technique! Perfect.

She had a solo in the show....a nice triple, very exciting for a Middle School show. So, we had to have someone else step up and do it while she is out. But, one of our 7th graders rose to the challenge.

I know is she bumbed out....having to be out of the show...but she comes to all the practices and cheers on her team! Like I said....she is unlike anyone I have ever taught before in my life!

Extraordinary at the age of 13!

Here she is, the first practice after getting hurt!





And the entire team cant wait to have her back. They were all very worried for her, I know.





Every day we have rehearsal, I look forward to seeing these 25 girls. They are wonderful to work with and practice so hard. We give them a 10 min break, they take 2 and then practice on their own. I look forward to seeing how they will turn out by the end of the season. It will be great, I'm sure!

Another Hair Video

Here is another hair video.....it goes into how to do the hair style a little bit more than the others. I like how far forward the braids are in the other video I posted....but maybe this video will help you more.

Hair Style for HS guard

Hey girls. On your day off how about you try this hair style for our "show hair" this year!

I really liked the look of Sam's hair that one day at rehearsal.....so I went looking on youtube.com to find a tutorial to teach us all how to do it.

I found 2 links...

This one I like the most. But once you get the double braids to hold back the front of your hair DO NOT put the hair up and back. We will leave the hair down.....with some teasing to give it some volume.




Here is a second video that just goes into where and how to make the braids.....the braids are not holding back the front of her hair so I dont like it as much.





This looks like something we can do very quickly and easily. It didnt look like every one's hair could do the "Gabby poof" (and look mostly the same for all of you) so we need to find something EASY that everyone can do.

Feel free to text me if it works or if you think you will need help with this style.