For the true football game experience, there are many important pieces. While there’s the game itself, the marching band and color guard help bring life and excitement to the show in its entirety. 

This year’s marching band performance follows the theme of changing seasons and is titled “Hope Springs Eternal.” The band uniforms portray a winter landscape with cracked Earth meaning to show a barren wasteland. Color guards’ uniform embodies cracked earth with plants and other greenery emerging and coming to life. 

Marching band is a considerable time commitment. Practices are two and a half hours after school every day except Tuesdays and the weekends. Rehearsals for marching band start during the summer at the end of July and the season goes until the beginning of November. 

The most important event of the year for marching band is on Oct. 29 which is the Area marching contest. This determines whether they move on to state.  

Despite the amount of time marching band takes up, it’s still an enjoyable part of many participants’ lives, and the directors are very proud of their students. 

“This year the marching band has worked extremely hard. They are especially growing visually and have developed a strong visual presence on the field that audiences and judges have truly noticed,” assistant band director Mark Nichols said. “The students at Clear Lake are truly amazing and make it a lot of fun to interact each day. I am going to be truly sad when the season ends as this has been a special season for all of the members of the Falcon band.” 

You can obviously hear the band, but have you ever noticed the colorful flags decorating the field and adding to the band’s performance? These dedicated students are the Falcon color guard. 

Color guard is another important piece to that marching band pizzaz. But what is it? 

“It is the section of the marching band who spins flags, rifles, and other visual equipment to enhance the musical aspect of the show,” color guard instructor, Seth Heidman said. 

Although they are associated with marching band now, color guard has a competition of their own called Winter Guard. Winter Guard takes place after marching season. For it, color guard performs at an indoor show to compete against other schools in January. 

Color guard is also a large time commitment with practices during marching band season taking two and a half hours, three days a week, and three hours on Tuesdays and four hours on Thursdays once Winter Guard starts. 

Similar to marching band, color guard’s time commitment can be tiring. However, it still doesn’t ruin the magic for those in color guard, who find it exciting and entertaining. 

“It’s a fun group of people and it’s fun to learn how to spin the flags and the rifles and be a part of the show,” junior in color guard, Sydney Cunningham said. 

The color guard instructor shares these good remarks. 

“It is extremely rewarding to watch new students learn and grow with new skills that challenged them at first, but then become strong and confident later in the season,” Heidman said. 

If these things pique your interest, consider taking marching band or color guard next year and be a part of the aspects that add to the liveliness of football games for future years. Don’t forget to add it to course selection next semester!