In April, the Bowie open class color guard got fourth place in the world at the Winter Guard International competition in Dayton with their show, World of Fools, and became a world class guard.

This year, the guard has the bar set high, and with talented freshmen joining the guard expects their show to be very award-winning this year.

“Because I was a part of the color guard last year, the pressure to continue the legacy that they left can be hard sometimes,” junior color guard captain Jessica Stachew said. “Everyday myself and my team are being put to the test in hopes to be even greater than before.”

In August, a new competition season started for the marching band and color guard and incoming freshmen became a part of the color guard.

“Our class is very small; there’s five of us, and we have one girl who joined recently, and we’ve been doing really well,” freshman Caroline Doege said. “I think all of us have been picking up really well.”

The freshmen were introduced to color guard in April during spring band camp. There, they learned basic flag and guard skills.

“I wanted to join color guard because I loved the idea of getting to dance with flags and weapons,” freshman Aria Sherman-Weiner said.

Summer guard camp began in July, when the guard began to learn the choreography of their new show and learned some more advanced technique, and they began to put the show together with the band in August during summer band camp.

“I thought it was going to be really easy but it turned out to be really hard and complicated, but it’s still really fun,” freshman Maria Demopoulos said.

In May, Bailey Middle School started a color guard club so that middle schoolers could learn more about color guard techniques before they joined a high school color guard.

This year, there are about 30 7th and 8th graders in the guard club.

“I heard so many fun things about color guard in middle school that I really wanted to try it out,” Weiner said.

This year’s marching band show, “Deep,” is about a journey down to the bottom of the ocean and back up.

The color guard will be dressed as divers.

“The show is really good; I like the music and how our choreography goes with the music and how whenever the band plays something our choreography really goes into it and flows into it,” freshman Cecilia Ortiz said.

This year’s current show is one of the hardest that the guard has done and they have to work hard to get the choreography right.

“The most difficult part is probably getting all the checkpoints with the choreography, and making sure all of our feet are in time with each other,” Sherman-Weiner said.

The first competition for the band was Saturday, September 26 and there was a lot of pressure on the band to live up to the success that the JBHSOPE has gotten in competitions the past couple of years.

“It’s a lot of pressure to be what everyone says is ‘next Carolina’, the upperclassmen talk about last year’s seniors a lot,” Doege said.

The success of the guard in the past years has influenced the guard to improve their talents and work hard to live up to and exceed that success.

“The freshmen are getting better and better every year, and every year they keep improving more and more,” Stachew said. “They work hard and I couldn’t be happier.”