Ever hear of South Pasadena, Leuzinger, CAMS (California Academy Of Math and Science), Adolfo Camarillo, Gardena, Crenshaw, Dorsey, Westchester, or Wilmington High Schools?
All of these schools (and even more) are known to have had or currently have a pep flag team representing their respective school. Most of which are decent enough for competing and maybe even qualifying for USA Nationals.
Yes, I really believe that they could qualify for Nationals. I haven't been seeing them in most, if not any, competitions the last couple of years. USA Nationals had at most 20 schools compete, which has been dwindling down throughout the years. Could it be intimidation? The top ranked schools have been focused on competing for years while the newer established teams haven't yet to set foot on a competition floor.
But why can't they? Pep Flags/Short Flags/Flaggies/Sho' Flags/Twirl Flags has the opportunity to establish themselves more publicly if they make their skills more available to the audience. Cheerleaders? They were initially established as crowd leaders for schools. That's taken care of. Pep flags is pure entertainment, and its not enjoyable unless you have 3 or more members performing that routine. If you're lucky enough to have an established team I say give it all you got to make sure you're known. You only have so many years to be on a competitive high school team, and then you have the choice to enter college...with only two schools at collegiate level, there's hardly any competition to speak of.
So to all you non competitive schools out there, I'd love to see your schools being announced on the intercom succeeding "ON DECK". I think you have something to show for yourselves, and it'd be nice to see your progress. Do not get intimidated by the flashy military style so many of the schools have adopted. Look at Glendora, they have placed in the top 5 for the last two years in Nationals. You can do it too, and it's such a great opportunity that you guys do NOT deserve to miss.
4 comments:
Camarillo has always competed but only with SHARP. Hopefully you’ll see us out there in January at Agora. Don’t hold me to it though. >_<
Yeah I remembered Camarillo I used to compete with them a long time ago, and I competed against Crenshaw too!! There used to be a ton of teams back then, I wondered what happened to all of them?
Crescenta Valley has a team too, but like Camarillo, we've only been going to Sharp lately. I think that we went four years ago, but due to stubborn team members and advisors we have not gone since. Uhm...yea. Oh, and basically we're functioning without a coach, so we have no one to argue for us. If anyone wants to coach, please contact the school. Vickie Bouldin is the advisor.
I totally appreciate this post. I use to be on SPHS Tall Flags ('94-'97). I'm currently teaching at Leuzinger HS and decided to reestablish the color guard program for next year. Many of our students are excited to see this come to light. I also look forward to starting a short flag team here in the near future.
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