The stadium lights shine down on her as she spins the flag through the air. After four years of long practices and hours of hard work, senior captain Riley Flood approaches the end of her color guard career. A member since her freshman year, she has been a constant participant in anything the sport has to offer.
As captain of the guard for the fall season, Flood has seen her team through all it’s ups and downs and has been instrumental in the growth of her teammates.
“I have been able to help so many people and it makes me so happy to see how much growth the team has had throughout our fall season. It also can feel overwhelming at times because if someone on my team is struggling or having a hard time, even after I help them, it can feel like a roadblock,” Flood said.
Despite the challenges she may have faced, Flood has proved to be the leader her teammates needed. Color guard coach Cassidy Stephenson recognizes the efforts she’s put in to help the team reach its max potential.
“I think she’s extremely helpful, anything we asked her to do she was immediately on it. She offered to help us in so many different ways, especially with the new people, she would offer to help them and give them extra help throughout the season,” Stephenson said.
When it comes to performances, the guard has come a long way from where they were at the beginning of the season. According to Flood, an area that they saw a lot of improvement on was movement two, a segment that had a faster tempo and split between using flags and rifles.
“Movement two was like a coin toss at all of our performances: it would either be flawless or everything would fall apart. The improvement of movement two from our first competition to our final competition has been fantastic and I am so happy everyone continued to work to make it better. I was so proud of our final run that I started to cry as soon as we hit our ending pose,” Flood said.
As she enters the winter season, Flood hopes to take things slow and use this as her final opportunity to learn new skills.
“I want to live in the moment this season and take advantage of all of the opportunities. During winter guard we have to audition for which equipment we will spin and I would like to try to spin both rifle and sabre during the show. I have only done flag and dance lines in the past so I think it would be really cool to try something new for my final season,” Flood said.
