Ever pass the 4^th building on football game days, the hallway filled with a bunch of boys and girls wearing their signature uniforms? At pep rallies, you’ll see both Majorettes and Stingarettes on opposite sides of the gym. During football games you’ll see them throwing and twirling their colorful flags and batons on the field during half time. That’s the Color Guard team.

Color Guard is made up of Stingarettes and majorettes. During the football season, they produce work (choreography/routines) for the halftime shows, and the routines go with the marching band theme. Later on in the year, the Color Guard performs at competitions against other schools. The Color Guard team also performs at various pep rallies, events that the team is invited to, as well as parades and performances at Miami High

Being part of the Color Guard has its benefits. “Losing weight is one of the good things, but meeting new people and creating friendships are the best,” said junior Stingarette Gabriela Fernandez.

Junior majorette Natalie Mandado said that showing her talent by performing in showcases is what she enjoys the most.

The team has a lot of fun, but being a member comes with expenses, around $400 which pays for the skirt, jersey, pompoms, rifle, flag, gloves, band bag, flag bag, and jazz shoes. This 2016-2017 school year, there are 23 Stingarettes and 21 majorettes for a total of 44 Color Guard members.

Freshman Stingarette Yaa Reddick joined Color Guard because she was a cheerleader in middle school and wanted a new experience/challenge.

“I joined because I wanted to be involved with school, and it looked like a lot of fun,” said freshman Stingarette Carlos Cardova.

Junior majorette Emmanuel Fuentes joined for the thrill and because he loves spinning flags.

“I felt that I had the potential to be a part of a team, and honestly it just caught my eye ever since I started high school,” said junior Stingarette Jonel Sanchez.

People may think that getting into the team means it gets easy after that, but in reality, it doesn’t. Like any other sport, it takes up most of your time. At practices, they do a lot of run-throughs of their shows and they add more choreography in certain parts that don’t have much/any.

Handling both school and being a part of Color Guard could be very difficult. “I manage both by always going to practice, but put school first. I will try to keep my grades up by doing all my classwork/homework,” said sophomore majorette Jasniela Garcia.

Junior Stingarette Ivetsy Morejon keeps a list of all her homework and all the days that she has practice so she doesn’t forget.

Color Guard has many benefits, but it also comes with challenges. For example, Color Guard requires the team members to do homework, based on the marching band show. They later have to make a video doing the choreography with the show music in the background to show that they are practicing.

Senior Valeria Salmeron adds, “The bad thing about guard is getting punished when we don’t do all of our homework.” Sophomore majorette Will Smith doesn’t like “having bad tan lines and getting sunburned.”