People think that flag line can't compare to dance line and cheerleading. As spirit organizations we have our similarities and differences. We have to go through tryouts, after school practice, early Saturday morning practice, Friday night football games, halftime performances and band competitions. Twirling a flag is not as easy as other think it seems. Twirling a flag can be fun. You have to get dramatic with it. You have to be graceful with it and a little wild with hair flowing. First there’s tryouts. Tryouts start off as a clinic, which shows us the basic. We learn how to do carve, blue devil, sunshine, windmill, spin drops, speed drop, and how to jazz walk and run. I felt so lost when learning the jazz walk and run. It feels like we were running as ducks. A carve, blue devil, windmill, and spin drop were easy to learn. A windmill when you sweep the flag by your foot and drop it behind your back and come back up with. A spin drop when down on odds and up on even but you’re going in a circle. A carve is when you make two circles then a bottom circle. I couldn't get the sunshine for nothing. The sunshine start of like a windmill but you drop it behind your back grab it with your left hand. For some reason it was difficult. I started to get discouraged. I knew I couldn't give up. It's the day of tryouts. I'm nervous, palm sweating, and confidence was below zero. We went in groups of fours. My Best friend was in my groups and this was here second year on flag line. That wasn't fair. The doors open and my heart start pounding fast. We started off with the basics. I messed up on the blue devil because my thumb wasn't in the correct position. Coach Riley cue the music and rolling in the deep b Adele start to play. I'm smile the entire time even when I messed up. I swear to God I didn't make it. Coach Riley came out with the results. I walked up and I didn't see my name. My heart just drop. My best friend start to scream you made it. I was like no I didn't. I walked a little closer to the list and I saw my name. I ran into my best friend arms. I felt nothing but accomplishment. Now that I'm a member of the C.E Byrd flag line practices was coming. We started practice in the summer. No practice during the whole season could compare to the after school ones. We had practice after the first day of school. I didn't have lunch that day. Later at practice they gave us our field sheet. I couldn't read nothing. It said 13.2 steps behind the home dash. I just looked amazed. We already practiced the first song but now we had to find our place one the field. It was so hot that day. It felt like we was in the oven cooking. We had to keep starting over and flag line starting place was in the back field. Back field is basically the middle. A drummer start thumping his drum it was tune to start from the beginning. I move my way from the back field to the twenty yard line. I lead the line to the fifth yard line. My vision started to see like I had a filter on my eyes. Everything started to get enhance like a photo app. I started to see stars. I start walk off the field because I knew I was about to faint. I stayed off the field for the rest of practice. My first practice I learn to always eat lunch and stay hydrated. We have Saturday morning practice for our band completions. Marching season starts in October. Early Saturday morning practices were cold. The band director changed the routine where we run around the band one time then take our spots on the field and then start the routine. That was too much. I'll still push forward. One of the best part about flag line was the football games and not because we get in free. Halftime performance is like our practice for band competitions. At the Ruston game we had to put on our costumes. The band field shoe that year was osmosis. Flag line were the witches and twirler was Dorothy. Our outfits were a grey and black dress, black and white leggings, red sparkle flats, and a green hair piece like back in the 50's. For the makeup we had green eye shadow, red lipstick and blush. I feel like people were laughing at us but I didn't care. The shoes hurt. We had to set our flags. We did our intro were we walked on the field and run around the band because once again we were the witches. We ran to our place in the back field and go to flagging. It felt so good to perform with our costumes on. Another good thing about Friday night football games were being in the stands. Drum line start dropping that beat and you'll get so pump. We had small flags in the stands us. My favorite stand routine was called Ty. It was so energetic. You'll hear the drums and you'll just be so into it. People may not like the band but drum line be on point at the games. All the hard work leads up to band competitions. Our first band competition was the first week in October. All the halftime performances and after school practices pays off here. Our first band competition was in Texarkana. It was very cold and windy that day. We had to be at the school at eight to do a run down. I was very tired and cold. We were wearing dresses because of our costume. Coach Riley always told us to smile even when we line our flags up. We practice everyday with smiles but not the hot days. My heart start pounding fast as we approached the field. Not mention I washy trying to shiver. All I heard the band say was left left left. We slowly reached. My heart was about to jump out my chest but u was smiling really hard. We put our flags in the correct spots. We took our yellow flag that looks like the yellow brick road. We roll them up and start to do our witch like walk. We were talking about how cold it was. We heard the siren that signal us too run. We took off running around the band as they run in circles in the middle of the field. I was tired. We got to our spots and it was show time. We start off with our 16 count then made our way to the twenty. I was nervous but I was smiling with my head high in the sky. The judges like confidence. Flag line makes up fifth percent of the score. We had to be on our best behavior. The first song ends and the second start. The second song a slow song. We had small flags that was the color of the rainbow. The second was over the rain bow. Still smiling wishing I was in warmth but enjoying the breather. Now it was time for the third song. It was more upbeat and faster. Personally it was favorite of the three. My favorite part was at the end when we run with big talk flags that's about thirty feet in the air. Will run straight to the back field and run left right left right. At the end if that performance all I wanted to do was get off the dirks. Flag line received a one and the band received a two. A one means superior raring and a two means good. Our biggest marching band competition is at NSU. It was the first Saturday in November. I missed the LSU and bama it was worth. First the announcers said C.E Byrd band taking the field. The parents let go green balloons and cheered for us. It was warm that day so no complaints. We did our pre show which consists of running around the band. The band sound just like the CD. I was so into. Doing big motions, getting cute, and smiling like a won the lottery. I felt it in my soul this was our best performance yet. The band was loud, color guard was flagging abs we was doing the thing. I felt like a true performer. You know that good inside feeling you get when you watched a really good movie. That was it. We exited the field. The band director was crying we did so well. No matter what happened we was always going to remember this performance. We went into the stadium and sat down. It took them forever to announce the awards. The band received all ones. Which means superior rating. That was the first time we got all ones.