On the weekend of February 11, 2023, Steinbrenner’s varsity color guard team competed at Seminole
High School in the Florida Federation of Colorguards Circuit (FFCC), and for the first time in school
history won first place with their show Golden Hour.
There’s heavy preparation involved as the team started rehearsals as early as November of 2022.
“We start rehearsals for competitions in November as a varsity team we have rehearsals every Tuesday
and Thursday… and we had three Saturday rehearsals,” said senior Taylor Kriisa.
Leading up to the competition, the week before is filled with perfecting the routine and is also hectic for
the varsity team members.
“Because our show wasn’t finished before our last competition, practices the week of consisted of filling
in dance choreography with guest choreographers and filling in any gaps with small equipment work,”
said junior Maddie Ng.
The team also does multiple run throughs of their show to make sure it’s up to standards and they also
had a costume fitting beforehand to make sure they didn’t need any alterations before the competition.
However, the actual day of FFCC, is something junior Sam Fields calls “trust your technique.”
“We’re at the point where we have the show and just need to perform to the best of our ability. We
drive to the show site and get ready together, then go into a warmup before it’s out time to perform,”
said Fields.
Before going out there the team does a chant, and there’s a tradition where they kiss the inside of their
wristbands and leave a lipstick mark for good luck.
During the awards ceremony the team didn’t know what to expect since they weren’t able to go back to
the gym to watch any of the other teams.
“When they announced first place we all started losing out minds and were screaming like crazy because
this was our director Dawson’s first ever first place trophy since he started teaching at out school,” said
Kriisa.
Clearly this was a monumental moment for the Steinbrenner varsity colorguard team, and with this push
the team will continue to put in their best efforts to maintain their first place for their next two
competitions at Durant and Braden River High School.