Color Guard Speeches

The purpose of this counseling is to document your violation of UCMJ Article 91, insubordinate conduct toward a Commissioned Officer, CPT (P) Woodard, Rosilyn. O/a 221700OCT2015, LT Namkung, while I were addressing you that you proceeded to walk away and rolled your eyes. I deemed your actions were blatant acts of insubordination and unbecoming of an officer. I will not tolerate this type of behavior and expect better from an officer of your caliber.

As if I had unconsciously alienated myself from the squad. But no matter what I did I couldn’t shake the quasi -mental abuse that I had endured from cheer phi earlier on. No one likes to feel like the black sheep. But being a rebel was embedded in my DNA since birth. After all the separation, stress, and burdens of my financial obligations. I had contemplated quitting the team. I figured that if I didn’t want to be a part of cheer phi and if I couldn’t afford being on the team then why bother. One of the cheer phi members overheard me discussing my plan to the coach .I immediately got defensive and was silent the whole practice thinking that they were happy that I was leaving.

The day was October 8th, 2014. I hardly played. One school day, my 5th teacher, Ms. Smit said, “flyers for the basketball team on the table” ordinarily I took one. Kids from 4th, 5th, and 6th grade came to try out for the team. After tryouts, a paper next to the nurse's office was hung up. The paper sheet named those who had made the team. Surprisingly, I made the team, most likely from my height. I felt like I shouldn’t have made the team. At the time, I barely started to play basketball. I went to the practices at school and tried to make myself a little bit better, since a tournament was about to begin in a few weeks.

What is color guard? Color guard is a true test to physical strength and ability and it’s where I spend every waking hour trying to improve each toss, turn, and count. Color guard is where two, almost three dozen girls spend most of our free time practicing something that will not get us a job. It won’t pay us in anything but joy. And as cliché as that sounds, it’s true. Color guard will probably never give us more than thousands upon millions of life lessons. Yet, we all still do it because we love it. Color guard is striving to be the best you can be. It’s socializing with some people you can’t stand half the time because somehow they became like family and mean more than the world to you. It’s sacrificing so many Fridays to do what you love.

Stars: I attended Lee High School in Huntsville, AL for 4 years. As a general, I participated in many varsity sports, but anyone who knows me knows my favorite is football. Looking in as an 8th grader the varsity team at Lee was pretty good under head coach Kinte Welch; however, finally graduating and becoming a part of the team my freshman through junior year was pretty awful. Our program was awful because of many reasons, but you can 't blame it all on the head coach. Ending my junior season, we 'd maybe won 4 games in 3 seasons. At the beginning of baseball season my junior year the athletic department decided to release him from his head coach position. After many potential coaches filled out for the position our principle filled the spot. He was familiar with the football in our area and he also coaches at a rival school Huntsville High School. Coach Woods has been around football all his life also playing linebacker at the University of Arkansas. Woods taking over and hiring a new staff made our life so much easier. The senior class who came in as a freshman, and stuck through the tough times help lead the team to the 6A playoffs after not being a contender for the last 10 years. I played a huge role as a defensive captain and we were ranked one of the top defenses in our region. As a three-year starter for the Generals, we turned the whole program around my senior season and made it to the second round of the playoffs where we lost to a power house.

In third grade I began my first official Sheridan sports team. I was now officially making my way to becoming a general; before that I didn’t have any idea of what being a “general” meant. At the time I was attending Thornville elementary and the majority of my friends at my school were just as pumped as I, for our first practice on the field beside the infamous Sheridan Middle school. The first few weeks of practice taught me nothing I wanted was going to be easily attainable, these coaches expected more out of me than I had ever been accustomed to. The bar they set for us each day pushed us to new heights we had only dreamed of.

I was constantly looked down on, as through the practices, varsity players continuously knock me down and run me over. One varsity player named Jordan Zorbas hit me so hard I felt like a crash test dummy. Later in practices, the varsity roster was taped to the locker-room’s wall. I couldn’t place my name on the list, meaning that I was on the freshman team. I remember thinking,“ Why couldn’t I make it, “ but deep down I knew why. I began practicing with the freshman team at linebacker. September 7th we had our first game against Ida Baker high school. I remember making the first tackle of the game, with me wrapping the running back and stripping the ball from his meaty hands. Although I started the whole game, I was not satisfied with my performance and felt that I should’ve done

As I put off opportunities to improve my skills, and my character, the toll only became harsher and more difficult to overcome. In turn, my status among the other athletes began to deteriorate. Witnessing my peers expedite their game as I still struggled did not phase me so much at the time. In fact, I was sure that my role on the team would remain the same. This was obviously false, as within the matter of weeks I was pushed back further in the batting lineup, and committing more errors in the field than ever before. It was during our playoff run that I had realized the resulting detriment, when each player was counted on more than ever before. We ended up making it to the championship, only being one run short of winning. Although our team was able to accomplish that much, I felt short handed when it came to the successful

It was my sophomore year, and the day had come to find out who made the varsity lacrosse team. We piled into the locker room to discover rows of brand new helmets. The list of the varsity players was written on the whiteboard. The team was excited, the locker room buzzing with noise. My heart dropped as I realized that my name wasn’t written there. My friends were admiring their new helmets and I had to hold back tears and disappointment. I know now that I still had to be developed at the junior varsity level, but it wasn’t easy to understand back then. At practice that day, I played out of pure spite, every move filled with rage. You aren’t good enough, I thought. I left practice that day without saying goodbye to my friends.

There was no doubt in my mind that Team Captain was mine. The locker room was silent as the coach read each name. Having had the honor of being a Varsity player since my freshman year, I was sure that my hard work would pay off and I would lead the team. Suddenly, it came out of nowhere and hit me. I stopped breathing. All I could hear was the sound of my heart beating. My name was not called on that fateful day. Coach had decided that this would be the first year a junior could be elected team captain. Did I hear that correctly? After the smoke cleared and my head was back on straight, I came to realize that it was for the better. I had pushed the rewind button so many times, it gradually became less important to me. I figured I had two choices: stay and play or quit and never look back. Not being captain has made me a better person. I love to play football. Learning to look past the small stuff and see the big picture has helped me to focus on what is important to me in life My football experience has given me the opportunity to be the determined person I am today. I have learned what it means to overcome

From that championship on, I had to work especially hard to reclaim the trust of my instructors. Looking back, I can see now how hard it is to get someone’s trust back once it is lost. I practiced relentlessly throughout high school and was the best person on the saber line. Or I would have been the best, but I could never be consistent, which is one of the most important skills to have in color guard. I would throw my saber and catch a difficult toss ten times in a row perfectly, then the next day drop it three times. Due to the inconsistency, as well as my history of crumbling under pressure, my instructors would not allow me another solo toss on my color guard team again. My experience has left a scar in my mind, to which I owe my persistence to not make promises I cannot keep. The best way to keep someone’s trust is to not break your promises to them. I inadvertently made a promise to my instructors that they could trust me to catch my toss in our show when all focus is centered on me. I let them down, therefore I was left to deal with the consequences.

I practiced. Finally, the end of my junior year season came. As soon as we stepped off the field from state finals awards I started talking about being 2016 field commander. I went home, watched our old shows and conducted them. Somewhere around the end of April, our band director gave my opponent and me the score and a recording of the music for the upcoming show. He told us that he wanted it memorized for the audition. I started practicing immediately. I spent my lunch break and my last 2 classes listening to the recording and reading through the score. One day in class our director tells us that our band will be marching in the Great American Brass Band Festival Parade. What would we do for that? We would play the upcoming seasons music. So, we should be having the auditions for field commander soon. I was excited, though I knew I didn’t have a high chance because my opponent was the “favorite” choice. How did I know she was the favorite? Because as I talked to a friend about the parade, their response was “I’m not sure about performing since (our previous field commander) isn’t sure if my opponent wanted to, I mean, or whoever gets the position..” So I practiced harder and longer than anything I had ever done. Because I wanted the position

“You will be her guardian and safeguard her on this unruly journey.” Dominic was now going through an information overload and feeling the pressure pounds him.

"Look, Danny. I get it. You don't like doing anything besides staying at SHIELD. I am going to be completely honest with you; it wasn't my idea to drag you out into the city. It was Coulson." I explain to Danny who was next to me.

John and I went to his training grounds and I looked in shock because there were only seventeen troops ready to battle I said “ Don't we need more troops”