Color Guard wins regional championship

Samo’s Winter Color Guard Team made Samo history when it took the gold at the Winter Guard Association of Southern California Championships Competition (WGASC) on April 12. Senior captains Rachel Theis (’14) and Liza Mirkin (’14) led the rifle/sabre/flag-tossing team to victory in their final show of the year.Samo’s team has not won gold at a championship competition in their division before, and Mirkin said that as a captain she felt immense responsibility and motivation to lead her team to this win.“This was the final time I would perform in a competition and it was my chance for my four years of practice to pay off. This performance is what I leave behind,” Mirkin said. “As a captain I have helped keep my team focused and motivated throughout this entire season. I did not speak of a gold medal the day of the competition because i did not want to make my team feel over confident, but I knew that we had a very good chance.”Nonetheless this win was a long time coming, and Mirkin feels that her team’s preparation and dedication was really what brought on their win.“In the week leading up to championships I encouraged my teammates to practice even though it was Spring Break. [Theis] and I planned an extra practice at a local park in order to solidify all of our training before the big day,” Mirkin said. “This was also a time to work with individuals one on one and help them with specific things they were struggling with in their choreography or helping them with their technique in general.”This technique and individual work may be different than the preparation done for other team sports, but according to Theis it’s just as challenging and tiresome. Guard typically does stretches, warm-ups, strides across the floors, “stand-stills” (doing the choreography in one place) and run throughs of the show during daily morning practices, four hour rehearsals and weekly sectionals.Mirkin said that through the process and practices she and Theis have become more coaches than captains and in turn have developed a certain maturity and leadership.“Although at first we struggle with getting everyone focused and positive, we eventually make practice more enjoyable,” Mirkin said. “We play fun songs during stretches and crack jokes during warm-ups to keep everyone entertained. We were able to communicate with our teammates and established boundaries as to when Rachel and I were their friends versus when we were their leaders.”All the practices culminate in the eight minute runs during competitions that include any combination of rifle, saber and flag features and different solos by members from the Sabre (Varsity) line. Band Director Kevin McKeown has said that he feels that the team this year has been exceptional and that there is much to be said about the job they have done.“This year’s group has always seemed very driven since Marching Band season, and we knew we had a really good group of kids who would be able to work hard together from the beginning,” McKeown said. “This year’s win was a culmination and result of great coaching, kids and just a great support system.”Along with McKeown, Mirkin said that the Guard has accomplished a difficult feat despite all odds.“I can strongly say that it is much harder than it looks; our flags, rifles, and sabres are heavy and making those things fly in the air and spin in time takes practice,” Mirkin said. “I love it when I nail my tosses and hit all my hard drill sets flawlessly. I know that our Gold Medal win has gotten lots of publicity and hopefully this will help give the sport the better image it deserves.”But both Mirkin and Theis have come to agree that the team has become more than just a bunch of teammates set out for only gold and that they all have developed into more of a family than anything else.“Since there is only one team the members are from all grades, so with all the time we spend together I have really from to love the team dynamic of this sport,” Mirkin said. “We are all one group, nobody is ever excluded. We are all friends and all get along which is such a unique thing to be part of, and our closeness made performing even more enjoyable.”The guard’s welcoming family tight-knit dynamic is not likely to change any time soon, according to Theis, who hopes that the only change will be in the standard set for the guard’s performance in competitions.“Because we did so well this year I’m hoping that next year the guard can go up into a higher division and continue to gain more members so that they can continue to be a successful medal-winning guard,” Theis said. “In the future I hope that the group grows to where they can have both a Junior Varsity and Varsity teams. As captain I have an amazing opportunity to teach new members skills and watch my teammates get better and better. I’d say the work and time that I put into guard has definitely been worth it.”