GuardIsMyNaturalHigh

I've been informed that slightly less than half of current Flanagan is made up of veterans from their gold-medal show. The rest have either come from last year's JV or are new members and/or freshmen who hadn't ever spun before this year! Amazing! I was able to attend the Ft. Lauderdale regional, and these guys must be working their behinds off because all I saw was fierce talent. I'm excited for what that means as the season progresses.

The floor was in fact made up of secrets that people from all over the country had sent in. Early in the season there was an article about the contest they were holding, here's the link: http://www.wgi.org/news_detail.php?id=1156 And I'm pretty sure the voice-overs were of people telling secrets. My favorite quote from the show, (the only one I remember, lol) is "You can't hold on to the past; you just have to look to the future." The show was based off of a online community art project called PostSecret, started by Frank Warren, where people anonymously send in secrets on a postcard that they have never told anyone before. I won't incude a link because some secrets that people send in are sometimes a little... well... not family-friendly. But the blog is based on the idea that we all have secrets that we feel we can't let out because we know we'll be judged... so PostSecret is a way to let it all out and get the secrets off of your chest anonymously. Frank Warren has created four compilations of the millions of secrets that he's been sent over the years, all of which have become New York Times bestsellers. I've loved the concept of PostSecret since it began and was so excited when I heard that Flanagan's show was going to be based upon it!!! That said, I think they pulled it off rather well. Just a little bit of background info for the uninformed

Actually, Flangan's graduating class of this year is 14 members, not 18. Not saying that's a small number... however their JV guard marched 35 members this winter! And from what I've heard, their JV seems to have the most potential out of any JV guard Flanagan's put out there. A few of the girls in Flanagan's SW guard told me that they've all been taking the JV under their wing and working with them a lot to help prepare them for the upcoming season. I honestly don't doubt that they'll be able to make it happen next year.

I totally agree with that statement. Let's just leave it at where we ended it so early this morning.... with a bang!

Congrats to every guard that worked it at WGI this weekend; it really was one to remember! I felt like everyone really pulled out all the stops and performed their hearts out! It was really amazing to see what all of these high schoolers can do! Props to Scholastic World becuase it was super exciting watching every single one of you. I'm so proud of everyone and I hope you're all proud of the entire season you all had. I'm so happy for Flanagan; props to the underdog for snatching the gold. Avon's show was really remarkable as well. I was really on the edge of my seat for the last few performances and honestly thought that 1st place could fall to anyone. I was literally going mad at retreat after they announced fourth place for SW and went to IW That being said, and referring to the comment above by GLG Guard, I did also hear a couple of nasty rumors that really dissapointed me becuase I thought we were all in this together, and I didn't think that anyone could be such poor sports. Anywho, congrats again to all participating guards and can't wait until next winter!!!!

Here are the Finals scores from the Dayton regional: 1 Avon HS 88.90 2 Miamisburg HS 85.80 3 Center Grove HS 85.70 4 Carmel HS 81.90 5 Warren Central HS 79.60 6 Northview HS 79.30 7 Centerville HS 74.80 8 Plymouth-Canton HS 72.50

Man, that got me excited. It would have been interesting to see Logan compete with this season's frontrunners. I think it would end up being a pretty close call. Although they still have until Friday. I'm not counting my chickens before they're hatched.

I wonder how it's all going to play out. I'm anxious to see if Logan goes to China... If they don't, I wonder if any of these guards could break the chain. I think most of them have been preparing to win, and with Logan back on the scene, they'll just want it even more. With enough work, anyone could be it this year.

What's Arcadia's show about this year?

Now that James Logan's out of the picture as far as wgi goes, anyone have any predictions for who will win Dayton this year for SW? Flanagan's currently an 86.5 from Pensacola. I know that Avon has their first regional this weekend, so they don't have an official score yet. Cheshire seems like another contender, but I don't know if Miamisburg will catch up? Flanagan's show seems very well constructed; I had the privalege of seeing it in Pensacola and their finals run was impeccable. They seem to have a real connection with the audience and the crowd loves them. Haven't seen Avon's show yet but does anyone know if it's going up on replay this weekend? I'm excited to see it. Miamisburg's show was the one about bells, right? Anyone seen Cheshire's show?

Why did they decide to change that?