The colorguard team finished first at the North Texas Colorguard Association (NTCA) competition on Feb. 15.

“Winning NTCA means that our hard work is paying off,” junior Karen Lopez said. “We still have room for improvement for our future performances.”

Although winning NTCA does not qualify the team to go to another competition, Lopez said she thinks the team will gain more confidence and motivation from the win and thinks this confidence boost will lead to better performances at higher level competitions.

“NTCA is just a regular competition for us,” Lopez said. “This year we will be going to WGI again which is Winter Guard International. If we go to the finals for WGI, we will be performing at the UNT Coliseum.”

Lopez said the team began preparing for NTCA at the beginning of the month and invested hours into practicing. 

“We had long hours of practice throughout the month and were always pushing through even when we were tired,” Lopez said. “We have to perform as a team in order to do well and connect with the audience as we perform, therefore showing our emotions to engage the audience is a big thing.”

Colorguard has been preparing for WGI since December. WGI will take place March 21-22.

“The NTCA victory will give us more motivation to try and get first again at our next competitions; we are really aiming to make finals at WGI in March,” Lopez said. “Having this confidence will allow us to push ourselves even further to impress the crowd.”