Every color guard performer dreams of one day having the opportunity to compete at one of the highest levels in the activity and showing off all of the hard work they have put into perfecting their sport. For a group of middle schoolers out of Palm Desert, California, this dream became a reality quite quickly, as they took the stage for another great year competing in the Scholastic Open Class division.
José Peña, director of the Palm Desert Charter Middle School color guard, spoke about how his group of talented, young performers got to explore the idea of growing up and finding themselves in their 2024 show entitled, “Through My Voice.”
“The show was about an individual that gets older and finds their voice through their life by meeting new people and even getting to know oneself,” said Peña.
To decide the theme for Palm Desert Charter’s 2024 show, Peña went looking for a theme that he felt the members of his new team could truly relate and connect to. He ended up stumbling upon Sara Bareilles’s song, “Little Voice” and immediately knew it would be perfect for his athletes. Peña even played the song during warm-ups for marching season to see if the team would like it as much as he thought they would; he was right.
One of the things Peña and the rest of the staff at Palm Desert Charter pride themselves on is the ability to train their athletes to maintain a high level of both maturity and performance to help them remain at the top of the charts of the Scholastic Open Class division.
“We would do mental runs at times, which helped a lot, and we would speak about the show a couple of times,” said Peña. “The athletes wanted to be great, which made it easy to work with them. They pushed and worked hard, like many WGI groups out there.”
Every time the group from California took the stage, the audience went crazy for them. This was especially true when the team performed in semi-finals at the 2024 WGI World Championships back in April.
“The audience has always been amazing for these performers at Palm Desert Charter Middle School,” said Peña. “They stood up for us at semi-finals and the students were beyond
excited. They had tears of joy, which is what you want for these performers, as they worked so hard throughout the season. The performers love it when the audience gets loud for them.”
Going into this past season, the team only had three returning athletes, as the rest had graduated and moved onto high school. This did not stop the program from creating a beautiful, technically advanced show that stunned audiences and earned them fifteenth place at the 2024 WGI World Championships.
“These kids worked so hard this season and were even younger to the WGI stage, but they stepped up and said ‘we are just as good as years past,’” said Peña. “We are very excited for next year’s winter guard season, as we have a lot of returners and some awesome plans for next year’s show. Keep an eye out for Palm Desert Charter Middle School 2025!”
About the Author:
Emily Ward works as a content creator for OneTouch Direct in Tampa, Florida. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications with a concentration in broadcast programming and production. She also minored in psychology. She began colorguard her junior year of high school, and was a captain of Sunlake High School’s Open Class team and has since spun for the University of South Florida.
