Kay, so, I forgot to put up an entry for the results of Cranston East, and then the competition after it, NFA.
Cranston was a stand-still, so we just marched into the gymnasium and while the band played the music, we did our guard work. We weren't judged on visuals, but somehow we ended up with best guard that day. Oh, and we were first in our class and best pretty much everything except percussion.
Then on Saturday, October fourth, we competed at NFA. We were actually marching, so I was looking forward to it.
The tempo for the second and third songs were sped up a lot, so it made marching and guard work much easier. (Jazz-running backwards 16 counts at a 2-to-5 is frustrating when the tempo is only eighty-something... maybe less than that... So now it's 112! I think... I don't know, but it's considerably faster than it was before. And that was for the second song. The third one, faster just sounded better and looked better.)
Our cheer for last time (part of which is going on the color guard sweatshirts that we're ordering eventually): "Flip it, spin it, toss it, catch it, make loooove to it!"
You see, at practice a few days before, our instructor (Kym) was telling us that we needed to put more emotion into the flags, make love with the flags. So that's where that part of the cheer comes from.
So, a little while before we were performing, Kym came up to us and gave us a pep talk that we weren't sure we wanted to hear. She said she almost hoped that we wouldn't get best guard again, so we could realize that we needed to do a lot more work and had a lot more to get done. We had just gotten lucky the previous times, and I admit, that was true; I had known that since Putnam. She said that if we got best guard, she wanted us to really have earned it. So with that in mind, we performed.
And we performed our hearts out.
The only parts we majorly messed up on were in the last movement, Brazil, and only a little. And I blame the drill for that.
So after we performed, Kym got us all together and said that she was proud of us, and that we really did perform it.
And before I say the results, here's a little story;
We had never seen Fitch perform this season. Fitch is our major rival, but they're not uber good. So we were actually able to see them this time, since it was us, intermission, and then them.
Now I realize why we had gotten best guard.
Their guard sucked.
They were never together, their flags kept getting tangled, a couple girls kept on looking around and watching everyone else, and it was so messy.
And their theme was something patriotic, but I wasn't able to hear anything except their percussion, which just seemed to get the job done, but wasn't anything amazing. But what do I know? I'm not a percussionist.
So it isn't a surprise when I say that we got first in our class and best in everything... except percussion.
Only because that's all we could hear!
But back on the band bus, one of the percussion instructors went to the back and I overheard her conversation with the drumline; they had only lost by a few tenths of a point. Like, .8 or something.
Then back in school, I heard from Amber (fellow sophomore and guard member) that Kym had said that we only WON by a few tenths of a point.
Then Kym wouldn't even let us listen to the visual tapes because the guy was so harsh, apparently.
I felt frustrated and confused; first of all, we rocked and Fitch didn't. How could we not beat them by a whole hell of a lot and by only a point?
Second of all, how harsh was the judge? Did he have anything stuck up his a**? Why couldn't we listen to him? Did he make personal attacked to every one of us? Did he insult any of our figures? Did he make any "guys shouldn't be in guard" remarks about Zach and Brandon? (If so, I'd seek out the judge and drag him to DCI to watch the Cavaliers, an all male drum corp, including all male guard. And I worship the guys in that guard. They are fuh-reaking amazing.)
I don't know, but we had a week of a break from competing this past week, so that meant lots of practice. On Thursday guard recieved new drill for the ending half of Brazil (because the first copy was a little inconvenient to a lot of us and the judges didn't like it) and it's much easier. And then on Friday, during class, the band recorded the show at the new tempos, so now we have something accurate to practice with.
Well, I'm off to enjoy my Columbus Day. No school today, and practice every day this week; Tuesday after school, Wednesday class, Thursday after school, Friday class, Friday football game, and Saturday practice before Southington.
Next time: Southington. I doubt that we'll be able to get best in show this year, for them or for Champs, but next time we're going to get first in our class and we're going to beat Fitch at everything, by a lot.
Because we're that good.
This is Horse lady, signing out.
Katie Sea Community Member 
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