going unrecognized...does anyone care??

fairfieldGuardGuy · Post by **fairfieldGuardGuy** » Thu May 20, 2004 7:37 pm

do any of your schools even care about guard or even know what it is?
my school sure doesnt. we dont even get to perform at assemblies. the only time people can see us is if they go to our competitions (which they dont). whenever we walk around with our warm-ups on or talk about guard in class people always say "what is colorguard? isnt it that one thing where the girls just run around spinning flags???" and the response is always "yea. But we do more than that too!!" and what really makes me mad is that guard doesnt count as a fine art, its just "P.E. credit" even though we do a lot more than what they do in p.e. we also work harder than any other team in our school and we win A LOT more, but we still dont get any recognition.
my question for you is: is it like this at your school too?

der_grosse_küh · Post by **der_grosse_küh** » Thu May 20, 2004 8:59 pm

I go to the same school as lilskewlgirlie and its just like she said no one even cares how good we do we dont get any recognition Were getting ready for spring show and one of the dance team girls over heard some of our guardies talking about it and there doing there show to hey mama and she was like o so u guys like colorguard to rap. She didnt even know what to say about it we all had a good laugh about it but in the end its pretty sad

tomatogoessplat · Post by **tomatogoessplat** » Fri May 21, 2004 12:08 am

i totally know what you guys mean. at my school, colorguard wasn't even counted as a full year of PE until this past year. and the kids at scool don't care who we are either. last year, there we could only get 9 people in the guard. this year, though, we have 14. the people at my school don;t understand what it's about. not even friends of those in guard support it. when we were trying to get a full year of PE credit for our class, we were talking to some people and they were like "well, it's not like you guys do anything." oh! i just hate them!

mumba182 · Post by **mumba182** » Fri May 21, 2004 1:14 am

so i go to school with vhsguardapple and lilskewlgirlie14l and its true like the people in drum line kinda get it cause at our school no one knows what we do and i dont want to be cocky but how good we are. like our varsity basket ball team were almost undefeated this season and we were almost too but at our assemblys basketball gets to go up and say how good they have done, and like we get to sit there and clap for them, we have an assembly on the 21st of this month and we had to fight to get 2 min of our show in on video. There are a few people only cause we talk about it that wanna see us, these chicks in my second per were like hey you went to nationals and you took 5th wow you guys must be good i wanna see you. but i mean no one really cares, our school nurse thought we just practiced for football games and that liek we didnt even compeat at all. sorry if i am spelling wrong im a bad speller. but she was shocked when i told her all we do, she even asked why we even had a guard if all we did was do a 1/2 show with the bad.

BttrDrummerThanU · Post by **BttrDrummerThanU** » Fri May 21, 2004 4:44 pm

Here's what you need to do to get recognized. You need to compaign. You need to invite your teachers, your school staff, and your principals to your competitions. Tell them they will even get in free (buy them a ticket or use an additional staff pass to get them in). This will encourage them to go. Also, get a few of your friends to go. Have them start talking about it. It will raise awareness in the school about who you are.

I'm a junior high band director and thats what got my girls to start getting appreciated. I invited teachers to competitions and they loved it. I had a few teachers who went to two or three comps this year. We needed helpers for our props and next thing you know we had all these kids who wanted to be "guard groupies" and help out because they saw how cool it was. Then the kids at school started talking about comps ("hey, our guard was sooooo good", or "saturday was sooo fun. What did you do? I was a at color guard comp.") It's all about getting that free publicity and raising awareness.

Next thing you know, we medal and all the kids at school are talking about it and all the teachers are congratulating the guard and buying them lunch, they get recognized by the Mayor of the city, and they get recognized by the school district Superintendant and School Board at a meeting.

It will come...you just gotta make sure people know what you do and why you do it. There are kids that aren't even in guard at our school wearing winter guard shirts they bought at a comp.

Justin

RifleDiva · Post by **RifleDiva** » Fri May 21, 2004 4:50 pm

Aww that sucks you guys don't get the recognition you deserve! Guard is only PE and elective credit for us too. I’m taking ceramics next year to get my fine/performing art credit (how guard isn't a performing art is beyond me). The respect our school gives us has grown A LOT in the 3 years that I’ve been here. We performed in a majority of the assemblies this year. And a lot of the staff at my school really loves us. As for the student body, the people I’m friends with think it's pretty cool. And most of our band is really supportive (especially those that have g/f's in guard, lol). We still have to fight to get rehearsal time in the gym and they NEVER talk about us on the announcements. Unfortunately people just don't get it. I think part of it is that the way guard is done now is relatively new compared to sports that have been around forever! Guard is something people have to get used to, I think eventually people will "accept" us and give us the respect we deserve. Hopefully your school will wake up soon, I love you guys!
p.s. tell Kara that Amy say's hi!

vhsguardlvr07 · Post by **vhsguardlvr07** » Fri May 21, 2004 6:39 pm

Wow, you get P.E. credit? We don't even get that. And when we finally got the school to paint out our area for people not to walk in, because we have guard zero period so people always walk through, and they announced it in the bullitin not to walk through our area and half the people laughed at us and the others had no clue that class was even offered at Armijo. Dumb people

..

lazitwinkie · Post by **lazitwinkie** » Fri May 21, 2004 7:22 pm

At my school some teachers are kewl with it and ask me about our comps. most people only see us when the band plays at some of the football games other than that people dont care. we dont get mony from the school district and we got a little from them for the new band uniforms but its been like 20 years. we are like low grade im in vallejo and thay are tryin to take away some of the music programs not football not basketball not baseball not nay other sports but the music programs that they campaigned for to keep kids out of trouble. at our school we win a lot more than any team and we work alot harder. the stuff we get comes out of our pockets and the kids at our skool think we throw poles... we cant even get a spin a flag. they think thats all we do and its so easy. one day before the vallejo festival thingy these cheerleader girls were walking inbetween the band and us going yeah yeah dancing sayin were in color guard in stupid voices.and other times people walk right under my flag when i march and i swear i wanna smack em in the head............. people think we are stupid preppy nerdy ass band groupies and were not !!!
so just screw em and let people know what color guard is and please tell them that we do not throw poles unless is is a special effect.....and well all get on and win our competitions and invite poeple you know especially if oyu host a competition and be like you wanna see us kick ass and come to the comp. most poeple ive done that to go damn yall are hella good that was tight and they tell people about it and people start to shut up about there snotty coments and by the way those cheerleaders place fifth and we won champs............shows whos better dont it.................guard is sick as hell. so HOLLA at yo gaurd girls!!

crispcookie88 · Post by **crispcookie88** » Fri May 21, 2004 9:30 pm

p.s. tell Kara that Amy say's hi!

Hi Amy! Tell everyone else i say hi. Anways getting back to the subject it does kind of suck that we dont really get recognized. I mean we put a lot of time and effort into our colorguard routine, and its sad that no one really cares about seeing it.

The reality is that the majority of the student body doesnt find colorguard cool. But why does that really matter? I joined colorguard along with the rest of you because I love it. It really doesnt matter what the others think about us, because we know how colorguard makes us feel.

sokkerboie · Post by **sokkerboie** » Sat May 22, 2004 10:45 pm

Last year was my first season at a high school near where I live. The marching band season went well (after some needed technical trainig) and our winter season really opened people's eyes. In years past, the program was slipshodden, messy and the nightmare colorguard. It does take a good foundation of technical excellence and well designed programs to open people's eyes.

But........I think you also have to look at what this is about for YOU. I do (and really always have) done colorguard and theatre and dance and music, not for the recognition, but for love of the activities. It's hard, I will admit, when you just want to feel supported by your peers and the school you are representing. And I think they have an obligation to support the programs of the school (above and beyond the typical sports programs). Here are some ideas:

- rehearse in a well visible place at times
- offer to participate in any arts events (you can do a standstill of your winter or fall program)
- offer to participate in 8th grade orientation events
- see about performing at the middle schools to support and promote your high school
- keep eye-catching, fun, and exciting flyers and notices posted around your school
- work with the band director or other staff to be involved - they are your best ally
- encourage your administrative staff (principals and vice-principals) and let them know that you are honored and excited to represent your school to the public.....don't go to them with a laundry list of what's wrong, they are VERY busy people, but encourage them to use you more for the school.

Finally - make sure that this is fun! For you and for everyone else, do what you do and enjoy every minute of it. This time will FLY by and you don't get these high school years back. So just have fun and enjoy the journey you are on.

RifleDiva · Post by **RifleDiva** » Sun May 23, 2004 9:05 am

crispcookie88 wrote:
p.s. tell Kara that Amy say's hi!

Hi Amy! Tell everyone else I say hi.

Haha, I forgot you post on here too!

A lot of what people have said is true, that as long as you do this because you love it, then it doesn't matter what others say/think. But it can be frustrating when you go and kick butt at a competition and come back and everyone is like "o you guys don't do anything" it's just the ignorance of some people

Eventually people will come around and sometimes some random person comes around that actually has a lot of respect for what you do. Like my history teacher. When I told him guards not a fine art, he replied with "that's stupid". I hate history but as a person he's pretty cool, he never puts us down.

guardee101 · Post by **guardee101** » Sun May 23, 2004 2:08 pm

we get support from the band, but that is pretty much it. even my friends dont really give me credit. i go to my friends sports games, then on a friday night they are trying to figure out what to do. i suggested once that they come to our competition becuase it was REALLY close to my school, they were like, anyway, what movie should we see. it is really sad. we are included in announcements during field season, but then everyone laughs at it saying, haha, bands compete. it really stinks. ive had people ask us why we have to practice and why we get PE credit (even though it takes 2 years to get 1 years worth of credit) it really stinks.

CaptainKiki · Post by **CaptainKiki** » Tue May 25, 2004 6:30 pm

We get P.E. Credit and Fine Arts credit, so it seems as though we've gotten quite lucky.

Like everyone else, the only people that really support us (besides family) are the Band. And even then, it's only the people who are close to us (ie, who were on the Floor Crew in years past before it was demolished this year

). Some of the school staff seem to act like they care, by telling me that we were "AMAZING!" at the Pep Rally, but, ya know. The students either ignore us or make fun of us. So I suppose we don't get much credit.

We've done a little campaigning, but most of us don't really care what people think of us. We love to do what we do, and it simply shows us who our real friends are.

Besides. Color Guard people are the best. Who needs anyone else? (Besides cute Band-Os, of course, haha)

mumba182 · Post by **mumba182** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:09 pm

so on this other site we posted the same question. and this one dude said it shouldnt mader what people at school think cause they arent the ones buying the vedios and comming up to you after you prefrom and telling you how good you are or how cool your show was. after reading that and having this year be really the first year that i experenced that, walking around and people saying how cool our show was and asking for parts of our uniform. well it dosent really seem to mader much what the people at school think. Guard is a thing that if you do it you know whats good and if someone sees you that dosent know whats hard and whats not hard to do, they dont seem to care. and it is truely about how you feel about guard and why your doing it, i know i had writen some stuff earlyer but when it gets to the bottom of it its about why you are still in guard and why your not one of those people who quite 1/2 way threw the season. I dont know about you but i dont go to a school preformance and hope someone from the basketball team come up to me and say wow your good i wish our we could be like you guys, i go to shows and when i walk off the floor after a preformance i would want people in other guards to come up to us and be like wow you guys are good, one of my friends told me after we preformed at there school she said said well maybe if we practiced like you we would be good like you guys. and thats enough for me to know people look up to us, even people in higher classes, and to have guards come in from practicing at shows to watch you preform im fine with that even if people at school dont get why im doing it or how good we are.

World of Pageantry

going unrecognized...does anyone care??

going unrecognized...does anyone care??

arggggggggggg

me too........