For the third year in a row, the Blackman Blaze Battalion Color Guard was invited to perform at the American Legion World Series. The team presented the colors at multiple games and events during the tournament.
There were ten cadets, hand selected by the school’s JROTC instructors, that went on this trip. Each of the chosen showed tremendous progress and great leadership throughout the 22-23 school year.
The American Legion World Series is located in Shelby, North Carolina at Shelby High School. The tournament consists of the 8 best baseball teams from each division of the United States. The tournament was a 7-day event filled with not only baseball games, but special dinners that the team performed at as well.
The team, as well as two of their instructors, 1SG Hart and COL Gaylord, travelled 6 hours by car to get to this event.
“We were given an invitation to join this tournament and be part of a very significant event by a very special organization,” said 1SG Hart, the color guard coach, when asked why to go this far for a baseball event.
Each of the ten members who went to the tournament got a chance to command a color guard. “The team bonding was so much fun and the ability to talk to the upperclassmen was nice because I learned about their experiences,” said sophomore Darin Xiong.
It was a new experience for many of the cadets. They each got to try something new and create closer bonds with their classmates.
“I got to learn more about each of the people who were on trip, and I got to gain valuable leadership experience,” says Gwen Hill, junior.
Even though the team did spend a good deal of time practicing and performing color guards, they had the chance to meet new people and learn new things. While on the trip the team got to meet the Golden Knights. The Golden Knights are the United States Army’s parachute team made up of expert parachute jumpers who preform for the public. The team even got to see them perform in between one of the tournament games.
“We got to learn so many valuable life lessons from the Golden Knights,” says junior Hudson MacNeal.
For the very last game of the tournament, the team worked for hours to develop a new kind of color guard. A ten-person color guard with four flags, two guards, two saber bearers, and two exhibitionists.
Sadly, the game was rained out and they didn’t get to demonstrate their hard work. Luckily, the team plans to present this color guard at the football homecoming game on Sept. 29. The team, as well as the instructors, are excited to show off their skills and hard work at the game later this month, and they are even more excited to attend the tournament next year!
