Splashes of pink, yellow and orange flash through the air as the Bowie Worldguard Members leap across the competition floor. Flags sweep across the room and tears glisten in the eyes of members who will perform with the team for the last time. 

After placing first at the state competition, the Bowie World Guard team advanced to the WGI finals in Dayton, Ohio in April. 

“It’s felt really nice to be able to place at the state competition and know that your hard work has paid off when we made it to Nationals,” senior Veronica Wisor said. “But knowing you were able to do it with your team is what makes it so memorable.”

The Bowie team competed against 21 other worldguard teams from all over the U.S. and ended up placing 13th at the finals. 

“It was definitely more competitive this year, especially after seeing our competition,” senior Lilly Perez said. “I wasn’t upset about our placement at all because we ended the season with an awesome performance and I had so much fun doing it.”

This year, the team’s performance was called  “Untitled Work” and the costumes and design of the show were inspired by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. 

“Yayoi Kusama lives in an insane asylum and hallucinates, and she has these dreams of constant polka dots that go on forever, so she paints them,” senior Cat Cardenas said. “Our theme is basically about the universe and infinity and how large the universe is.”

Leading to the final competition, the team faced challenges such as learning the new choreography and working with other teammates, but in the end the team’s bond was strengthened.

“The team faced some challenges in the middle of the season,” Cardenas said. “With constant 12-hour practices and learning new difficult choreography pieces, it definitely becomes a ‘trust the process’ situation.”

The world guard director, Joseph Powell, helped the girls learn the new choreography at each rehearsal, which helped improve their skills for WGI.

“Maintaining a World Class program is a hard endeavor and it takes time, commitment, and sacrifices from everyone involved,” director Powell said. “Managing the staff, bringing in the best educators, and setting a standard for the students are all key components to success.” 

This was the senior’s last competition for the Bowie Color Guard team, and they’ll leave knowing they left their mark. 

“I’m very proud of the work I’ve put into this organization these past four years,” Perez said. “It’s still bittersweet that it’s my last competition ever and I’ll miss it a lot, but I’m very excited about the things that [will] happen for this team.”