Steinbrenner’s Winter Guard Legends just had their last competition of the year on Apr. 7. This was the Florida Federation of Colorguard Circuit finals, and the last time the seniors will be performing with the rest of their Steinbrenner team. The finals were an important event for everyone involved, as over thirty schools attended.
“I can’t believe I’m a senior. It feels surreal and although I wasn’t thinking about graduating the day of the competition, I’m starting to feel a little sad thinking about the team moving on without me. I’m excited nonetheless to see them all shine next year.” said senior Kelly Thal.
At the finals, Legends performed to a mixture of Blue Man Group’s “It’s Time to Start” and Donna Summer’s “I feel love” edited by English teacher Matthew Caudill to provide a sort of rock concert feel. There were multiple moves and series of flag, saber, and dance. The division they performed in was AA, which was a big step up from the usual division that Legends performed in the year before.
“I think that this competition was our strongest run. We had a bit more time to prepare for the final competition compared to the ones before it, so we had a lot more time for improvement in flagwork. All in all, I think over the course of this season we have improved tremendously and I am happy with how we performed at our last competition of the season,” said senior Jamie Leist.
Over the course of the season, a big point of improvement for Legends was the energy and technique on the floor. After a whole season of hard work and competitions, they managed to raise their original score at their first competition up by 20 points.
“Since this was the last competition of the season, we were all really sad for it to be ending, but at the same time super excited. We took all this energy we were feeling and we put it into making our last performance the best performance. But by the end of the competition, we were all hit with the realization this is the last colorguard competition we’ll ever compete in. It was really sad, but at the same time really nice to have such an awesome last competition,” said senior Skylar Mason.
When the Legends went back out onto the floor to await awards, they were cautiously optimistic. They knew their hard work over the season really paid off, even if they didn’t win this new division they were unused to.
“We did not place, but I am personally very proud of how far the team has come and I’m excited to see where they will go in the future.” said Thal.
Photo Courtesy of Charlene Felice
Gretchen Strunk // Staff Writer
