The 2016 school year has been filled with many changes. One of them being the new color guard instructor, Mr. Caudill. Before working at Steinbrenner, Mr. Caudill was a director for an independent group in Nashville, and also worked at Land o’ Lakes high school before making his way here.
Mr. Caudill has a major in dance and from this he became a professional performer. He is able to choreograph the dances and movements for the color guard with proper technique and style as any instructor should.
Although Mr. Caudill is new to Steinbrenner’s color guard, he is not new to the world of color guard. He is a professional performer who has taught in independent groups and has brought many groups to state championships and national competitions. Even with all this experience, Mr. Caudill has to rebuild a program and is looking forward to starting fresh.
“I really can’t wait for the future. The color guard here has so much untapped potential. I have even spoken to the band director Mr. Allgair and he agrees with me that within the next couple of years the Steinbrenner high school Legends color guard will be attending state competitions and hopefully national competitions,” said Mr. Caudill.
“I definitely believe there’s going to be a big improvement in this year’s Winter Guard show because of Mr. Caudill’s experience in the dance world. Just based off of marching season I can tell we’re going to have a pretty amazing show,” said guard captain and junior Skyler Mason.
Mason isn’t the only one who feels that this year’s Winter Guard show is going to be amazing. Freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors all agree with their captain that this year is going to have more choreography than previous years.
“So far this year I can already tell Mr. Caudill is an amazing teacher. He knows how to explain things and fix minor details that make the biggest differences,” said Junior Kelly Thal.
Being in her first year of guard, senior Katie Molsen shared her feelings about Mr. Caudill.
“With his past experiences, I think he’ll do great things with the school’s color guard, and I believe that guard in the future is going to go very far even though it is my first year. I’m glad I joined with him here to teach me.”
“He really knows what he’s talking about. He has a lot of background in dance and he’s able to give us critiques that we need. He is a very effective coach, yet he’s hard on us and it’s because he cares and I would rather have a coach who cares than one who doesn’t at all,” said freshman Brenna Foreman.
Mr. Caudill is prepared to take this group as far as he can. From state to nationals the Steinbrenner High School Legends color guard has plans that will hopefully be completed.
“Hopefully within the next 5 years, I will make this group of dancers the best in the state and possibly the nation,” said Mr. Caudill.
With hard work, dedication, and time, our color guard can be the best in county, state, and be nationally ranked. With the winter guard season here this is the color guards time to show everyone what they are capable of. Many people look forward to watching them compete against the other schools in hopes of winning 1st place. We wish Mr. Caudill and the color guard members the best of luck in the future.
Alyssa Ruiz // Senior Staff Writer
