Flapping their silks high in Ohio

Leaving this year’s competition season with flying colors, the Diamond Bar High School Colorguard secured their spot as the 29th team in the Scholastic Open Division at their annual WGI Competition in Ohio.

Since the start of the season in November, the team had been preparing their show for Winter Guard International, this year themed around a quodlibet of melodies, essentially four musical chords that are present the ten or so songs used throughout. 

These shows are often carefully crafted by team director Rob Jett, who choreographs and designs most of their performances. From there, the team spends practice learning their shows and finalizing parts to assure that each movement is perfect and ready for competition.

Just before their competition in Ohio, the team had already competed in their local qualifiers, the WGI regionals in San Diego and Manhattan Beach, and WCWG’s championships, where they ended the season with an amazing victory.

“We competed in regionals in San Diego and Manhattan Beach. And through those, we got our seating placement, and that would determine when we perform, and who we were going up against for prelims,” junior Julian Medina said. “After prelims, they use your score, and you have to keep qualifying to get into the next round and the next round.”

The trip consisted of a full agenda, from early morning rehearsals in stadiums and arenas to their respective preliminary, semifinal and final competitions. From there, team performances are scored to determine the qualifiers for the round.

“It’s been really fun because we’ve been able to grow really close as a team, and we’ve been having a lot of fun spending time with each other and bringing our show to brand-new places and spreading Diamond Bar all around the world,” junior Chloe Loyola said.

Outside of competitions, the Brahmas spend their majority of their time rehearsing and preparing for the next round, continuing to refine and perfect the shows that Colorguard brings to each competition. 

“We rent out local places, whether it be practicing at a community college, an empty gym, parking lots,” Loyola said. “Tomorrow, we’re practicing at empty and nearby stadiums, so we’ve really been just making do with what we have.” 

This competition in Ohio marks the end of the varsity team’s season. Staying energized and empowered throughout long competition days is a top priority for the team as well as learning to trust the process and making the most of their time there.

“Next step is to continue pushing forward and to keep going,” Medina said. “Once our week is over, we’re really done for our season, and we start planning for the next.”