Color guard places first in one of largest drill meets for second year in a row
By Lauren Seynhaeve
On March 6, University of Portland's Air Force ROTC Color Guard brought home the gold from the Southern California Invitational Drill Meet for the second year in a row.
The members who participated in SCIDM from UP belong to Mitchell's Rifles, a club run by AFROTC cadets.
There were two participating groups this year, including a four man color guard and a four man rifle team.
This year, sophomore guardsmen Samantha Burns and Kourtney Kugler and flag bearers sophomore Kari Wise and junior Steven Beyer had the honor of winning first place over schools like the Air Force Academy, West Point and Brigham Young University, schools known for their excellence at drill competitions.
Last year, another UP color guard team with different members won the gold.
"I think they really deserve it," said junior Brendan Figuly, commander of Mitchell's Rifles. "The expectations I've set for my team have been far surpassed in terms of excellence and determination."
Made up of two guardsmen, who protect the flags, and two flag bearers, one holding the Air Force flag and the other holding the U.S. flag, the color guard performs precision drills.
They are judged by an active duty Air Force color guard sergeant on time, precision of execution and inspection of uniform.
"It was nice to know that all of our hard work paid off," Kugler said. "It's one of the highlights of the year."
The Southern California Invitational Drill Meet is hosted by the University of Southern California's AFROTC Detachment 060.
The meet includes over 100 teams and is known as one of the largest national drill competitions.
"It's hard to compete, because we're such a small school," Figuly said. "We didn't think we were going to place."
This year's winning team went to SCIDM last year, but they did not place in the competition.
The loss gave the color guard team an even stronger desire to practice harder during the hour and a half practices held three to four times a week over spring semester, according to Burns.
During the announcements of which schools placed for the competition, each of the UP members remembers being tense and a bit worried.
"I knew we did well," Beyer said. "But when they said we won, I was in shock."
The win means a great deal more to the UP Color Guard than a simple success because of the other competing schools.
According to Beyer, larger schools such as the Air Force Academy have a much larger pool of students from which they can draw to make teams for these competitions, and their schedules include much more practice time.
"This is what they do, and they are made to win these competitions," Beyer said. "And this is the second year our small school from Portland has won."
Major Mark Durrell, adviser of Mitchell's Rifles, is also impressed that UP has done so well at such a large drill meet.
"I am very proud that our team from a small school has such a great program that we can go to one of the largest drill meets in the country and compete at such a high level," he said. "I'm looking forward to continuing this legacy in future years at SCIDM."
Shining shoes for an hour per pair, scouring uniforms for any fiber that did not belong, cleaning the rifles and trying to get waist long hair into neat buns, the team spent eight hours getting ready the night before the competition.
"This is the capstone of all we can do," Beyer said. "We did the same thing (as last year) but paid more attention, and it paid off."
After long hours of practice, the color guard's goal to place at the competition was rewarded with the gold this year.
Together as a color guard for two years, the members of the team have built strong friendships with one another.
"If you can't connect to the people next to you, then there's no point," Burns said. "We have a great bond - we're like a family."
The members of this year's SCIDM four-man color guard team hope to participate in the competition again next year, although their positions within the team will likely change.
"This is the most we've worked for one single thing, and to see the pay-off is pretty amazing," Beyer said.
