About Us

We are the visual aspect in the Marching Band; we represent the music through choreographed spinning and dancing. We perform at every Gopher Home Football Game in pregame, halftime, and postgame show. We also perform in the annual Marching Band Indoor Concert. You can view our pregame and our Insight Bowl halftime performance on youtube.

Pre-Season Practices

The Color Guard holds three Wednesday night practices in August before the season begins from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. In-state vets and rookies are required to attend at least one practice. If you have never spun before, you are required to attend at least two. However, if you are from out-of-state, your attendances are waived, but please inform a leader. Leaders run these practices with the help of vets to teach the new members our school song routines. These practices are very helpful and will make the start of season run more smoothly. Plus, it's a great way to meet some members before spat camp.

 
Spat Camp

The season officially starts with spat camp, an on-campus, ten day learning period in late August. At spat camp you will learn the main marching techniques and fundamentals, the routines to our five school songs, and basic rifle moves. Rookies, drumline members, and the color guard come two days before the rest of the vets to learn the basics. When the vets arrive, marching fundamentals continue and teaching pregame will begin.

 
Practices

When school starts, we practice with the band every Monday through Thursday 4:15 - 6:00 pm and hold an additional sectional on Wednesdays 7:00-9:00 pm. If it is game week there are two more additional practices, one Friday night and one Saturday morning. Each week we split our time between learning new halftime music and drill and repeating pregame. Our extra sectional time is used to clean work and may include some extra marching while spinning practice.

 
Membership

The Color Guard is a part of the Marching Band which is a credited class at the University; students much be registered for MUS3480. If you are a non University of Minnesota student but are from a neighboring college you can still join as an extension course by contacting the College of Continuing Education (please contact the leadership for more information). The Color Guard is open to anyone interested in joining; experience is preferred but not necessary. If you are inexperienced you are required to attend the pre-season practices.

Last year we welcomed 21 members, 13 vets and 8 rookies. In addition to seeing everyone everyday at practice we added "Flagline Frolics", an idea from one of our vets, in which the guard gets together for a fun activity where we don't have to be on a field. They included trips to Ben and Jerry's for a vermonster, Applebee's for half-priced appetizers, and tie-dyed shirts.

If you have any questions about the Color Guard, please contact the leadership.