<p>Can someone tell me if Winterguard/Colorguard is considered a sport or a musical activity in the ECs? In our school, the Winterguard is conducted by the music department. I see it involves a lot of physical activity and was wondering if it can be considered a sport. Do colleges consider or value it? </p>
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<li>hypermom</li>
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<p>My DD was the captain of our color guard, and she also was the one who wrote the proposal to have a color guard, created all the movements, picked out the uniforms and drilled the team. It was an EC…not a sport. In her case, because of her leadership position, it was also the subject of her college essays.</p>
<p>The relatively few colleges that consider ECs as admission factor will consider any ECs that have had a major impact on the student or in which the student has had a major impact.</p>
<p>Probably the colleges that most value winterguard/colorguard would be the ones that have their own teams.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it matters whether or not the colleges consider it a sport. Students don’t need to have done sports to be admitted to any colleges except perhaps the military academies since physical fitness is important part of qualifying for those unique schools.</p>
<p>If it were me, I’d put it in whatever column looks like it needs beefing up. If they do warm ups or conditioning exercises I think I’d be more inclined to think of it as a sport.</p>
<p>I would not put it down as a sport. It is a step beyond what, to me, can be honestly termed a sport. (FWIW, I think the outer limit is competitive cheer.)</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t consider cheerleading a sport. Athletic event-- yes. Sport-- no.</p>
<p>Winterguard/Colorguard is NOT a sport.</p>
<p>This is why I say cheer is the outer limit. It is being accepted as a sport in some places, just like other “performance” type sports, like figure skating. But color guard is really beyond that outer limit, especially if it’s not competitive.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you’re asking, but will answer in case you are asking wondering if it will help or hurt your D’s admission chances.</p>
<p>In looking at your back posts, it seems your D’s scores are around the average for college-bound students. That means that she has chances to get into most of the thousands of colleges in the U.S. </p>
<p>Virtually all of those colleges make their admissions decisions based on the student’s stats, and the colleges’ main concern is whether a student demonstrates the ability to handle the classwork at their college.</p>
<p>Consequently, ECs aren’t important to those colleges. At most, the colleges may give some merit aid to students based on their ECs. Otherwise, whether or not a student even does any ECs won’t matter.</p>
<p>It’s not a sport. No school classifies it as a sport. . DD was captain of her team. The best it can do is give demonstrated leadership, if she was a captain, a strong interest if she kept it up and maybe something to write about since many life lessons can be derived from the team/music/dance experience. BTW Hunt - it is competitive for the indoor Winterguard season. This is way different from the color guard you see at the marching band half time shows.</p>
<p>In my school district it is part of the Fine Arts department, but does qualify for PE credit. (Drill Team is also Fine Arts, but Cheerleading is part of the Athletics department).</p>
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<p>One team in a class at a “State Championship” is competitive?</p>
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<p>Well, that makes sense 
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<p>That’s like at my high school, band members get out of PE. Because it’s so physically taxing…</p>
<p>At our HS, colorguard is how the instrumentalists who don’t have marching band instrumentation are required to participate when the band marches. It’s part of their “band” requirement. This includes all of the double reeds (no marching band music for oboes or bassoons), the harpist, pianist, and some of the french horn players (some march…some are in the color guard). </p>
<p>Our high school band is a concert band that marches in only a few festivals and parades per year. It’s not a marching band that plays for every football game…there is no football team.</p>
<p>Kids in our band are required to march. My daughter got tired of carrying the banner and proposed a color guard to the band director. He approved the idea, but the implementation was all hers. She has graduated, and now the school does get someone to help the kids during their summer band camp…with the color guard routine. The double reed kids usually take charge. </p>
<p>Since they had to do something anyway, colorguard was better than walking alongside the band with wagons of water.</p>
<p>Interesting. At our HS colorguard is a half year class; meets the same time band does to practice the routines. I wouldn’t consider it a sport, more of an activity. And at our HS, NO ONE gets out of phys ed!</p>
<p>I wish I could have gotten out of PE by doing color guard! At my school, band members had to take PE over the summer, because it was really tough to fit PE into your schedule when marching band met for an hour every day. So the summer before my freshman year, I had two weeks of PE in the morning and color guard camp in the afternoons. (I did lose about eight zillion pounds, though. :))</p>
<p>I knew several other girls at MIT who had done color guard or winterguard during high school. Most of us ended up on the cheerleading squad at MIT.</p>
<p>Marching band and color guard at our local hs counts as PE credit. It’s not a sport, per se, but sometimes it seems like the kids are doing some serious speed walking while playing those instruments. The band program at our local hs is involved in serious field show competitions in the fall and the kids practice a lot. They’re getting their exercise.</p>
<p>Yes, they are definitely getting their exercise. Especially with daily practices 3 weeks before school starts (in the very hot August sun) and afterschool practices at least 3 days a week. A LOT of physical work goes into their show.</p>
<p>At our hs, colorguard is part of the marching band and is run by the music dept., not the athletic dept. They also hold their own separate banquets and awards nights. Not having the band and colorguard members come to the regular varsity awards nights may be because of the size of the group more than any other factor. I say this because now marching band has a quasi-sport status. Recently, the band parents convinced the school to award their kids varsity letters. Many people were very unhappy with that decision. I’ll grant that it’s exercise, but it’s not a sport IMO.</p>
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At our HS you can letter in all of the performing arts, including band, orchestra, chorus, theater, dance team and color guard. and chearleading - which is not considered a sport either. . Each sets up an approved points system depending on level of expertise and activities. I don’t think that is a bad thing. There are a lot of ways to represent the school without being a sport. There are pins that attach to the letters to designate what they were for.</p>
<p>Same at our school, singersmom07. Why should varsity letters only award excellence in one aspect of high school–boys sports? (at my hs, years ago, no girls athletic program…)</p>
<p>At my son’s school, you can get an academic letter if you have a 90 average the previous year. Bonus - if you get an academic letter, the school pays for the jacket.</p>