The Coppell High School Arena was filled with cheers of anticipation as the Coppell Colorguard gracefully strode onto the arena floor. On April 7, Coppell Colorguard placed second in the Scholastic Open competition at the North Texas Colorguard Association state championship. 

The Spring 2024 NTCA state championship took place at CHS, in which 37 different colorguard teams competed for different performances. Coppell Colorguard participated in the competition with Southlake Carroll, Keller Timber Creek, Little Elm, McKinney and Flower Mound Marcus. Coppell took the silver medal with a score of 87.9, closely following Marcus who scored 88.0.

The Coppell Colorguard performance, “In Fantasia,” which placed first nationally for the Scholastic Open at Winter Guard International in Austin on March 3, is a Celtic myth about fairies who live in a cave far away from society. 

 “The cave troll fairies get energy from crystals, and the audience are the visitors in the cave,” said senior Parker Jones, winner of NTCA Performer of the Year.

 The story of “In Fantasia” invoked many different emotions as the story went on, there were clear shifts in emotions throughout the beginning, middle, and end.                                                                

“In the beginning, we express mystery and curiosity, as the audience is kind of intruding on our cave,” senior varsity captain Daphne Lin said. “Once the sabers come out, we become more smirky and showy, expressing how we want to show off to the cave intruders. When the rifles start, we are very aggressive and in their face. But when the pink flag wedge starts, we are nearing the end, we are sad for the audience to leave, so we have a raised eyebrow showing sadness.”

While “In Fantasia” is based on a fairytale, many real world ways can be interpreted through the performance. 

“We, as cave creatures, represent a close-knit community or safe place where individuals find acceptance and belonging,” Lin said. 

The performance highlighted the importance of community, support, empathy and including.

“My teammates and I had the best run we’ve ever had this season,” Lin said. “It was dropless and had the best timing throughout the whole show. We worked hard to achieve the final best run and are very proud of it.”

Throughout the performance, the Coppell Colorguard performers maintained their harmony after months of practicing and perfecting their show.

“I feel like the performance was very high energy,” Jones said. “This was one of our better performances, everyone was in sync, and the audience was very energetic.” 

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