In the weeks leading up to the competition, the Varsity was ranked seventh overall and third in the previous red division in the West Area, giving the team hope for a high placement at this competition. Scores are highly variable in TCGC due to the judges’ differing opinions, making them unreliable for gauging improvement for future competitions. However, the team felt as though their skills had been improving exponentially with no observable plateau.

“I thought that we were all very anxious, but we eventually got through that nervousness,” Lara Pinto ’26 said. “When we were in line about to go on to the performance, I think we all focused up and were able to give our best.”

With how different the Reed Arena is to other venues, performers were nervous about having their last competitive performance in such unique circumstances. The arena’s blinding lights and high ceiling can be disorienting for performers in comparison to other performing spaces, especially when perceiving depth underneath tosses. The audience space is also significantly larger with judges clearly visible to performers. Despite the struggles presented by the arena, the team still had a successful run and bonded over their last competitive run of the season. 

“I think there were positive and negative aspects of the performance area,” Ren Willingham ‘26 said. “Positive being that it gave me more of an adrenaline rush because of the new environment, negative being that the lights made it hard to perform.”

Unlike previous competitions where only captains attended the awards ceremony, the entire team attended the ceremony adorning glowing hats, sticks and necklaces. This competition had a full retreat, where all of the teams present at the competition attended the awards ceremony to celebrate the art of Color Guard and all the effort the teams put into the season. Full retreat made finishing the season at state all the more special, as all of the team was present to celebrate the moment.

“There were a lot of people packed really close together which was really fun, but also kind of chaotic,” Raymond Wiener ‘26 said. “The entire atmosphere made the event feel important, and it was amazing that I got to be there with all my friends.”

Now that their competitive season has concluded, the Color Guard program has started to prepare for their independent spring projects, which they will be performing for the Westwood community on May 27. 

Since it was their last competition, JV rehearsed rigorously leading up to this performance, perfecting choreography and changing certain parts of the show. Changes were made to parts of the show where judges from previous competitions critiqued the show for not being impactful enough. While changing choreography is a difficult task when muscle memory has already been built, the team took on the task in full stride.

“[Adding choreography] was pretty stressful since we had a few things that we still needed to learn for the championship,” Zain Berry ‘28 said. “I think the changes made the show different and challenging and showcased what the team was really capable of to the judges.”

Due to the increased volume of teams at this competition, the Scholastic JV Regional A classification was split into two divisions of ten teams each. The JV team came in first place with an impressive score of 76.66, their highest score of their season. While first in their division, JV came in 5th place overall in their classification, which is still an impressive feat.

“Everyone worked really hard and I think we definitely deserved getting first place,” JV Captain Michael Flagg ‘28 said. “I personally felt like I could have had a better final run, but I think overall the team still had a great run.”

While the Varsity Color Guard was pulled out of this competition due to Director Mark Istratie’s decision to focus on the JV’s final performance of the season, the Varsity team still accompanied JV to cheer them on. They helped with moving the team’s tarp and equipment, and provided moral support throughout the day. 

“I think the JV [team] has been working really hard and has grown a lot throughout this year,” Varsity member Lily Chen ‘27 said. “I really liked the rifle and flag parts they worked on in their show and thought it made a good impact on the audience.”

With their competitive season now at an end, the JV are currently on a break from their usual rehearsal schedule. They will be performing their show Birds of a Feather one last time during the Color Guard community performance on April 7th. 

On Saturday, March 1, both the Varsity and JV Color Guard teams competed at the Winter Guard International (WGI) Austin Regional preliminary competition at Glenn High School. Both teams qualified from prelims to compete in the finals round on March 2 with the JV team earning second  out of the three teams in their class, and the Varsity team earning eighth out of the 20 teams in their class. This is the first time the JV team has competed at this highly competitive regional, and the first time Varsity has proceeded to finals in five years, making this a momentous occasion for the program.

WGI Austin is famously one of the most competitive regional competitions in Texas, and competing was a highlight for both teams’ seasons. With over 70 teams competing in the different classes, it is not only a competition of ranks and scores, but a celebration of the art of Color Guard in Texas. In addition to performing at this competition, the Color Guard got to witness several amazing teams from different parts of Texas ranging from other high school teams to independently operating color guards.

“My favorite color guard I saw was probably James Bowie High School,” Draden Jones ‘26 said. “I liked being able to see guards that were better than us so that I could have something to aspire to become.”

The JV team initially competed against six teams in their class, with the top three teams advancing to finals. JV earned their highest placement yet with a score of 78.14, placing second in their class and moving on to finals. At finals, JV remained at second place but managed to increase their score to 78.72, a feat possible due to their admirable perseverance and focus during their run of their show Birds of a Feather, whose concept is based on birds and the 2023 Warrior Band Production Birds on a Wire.

“I felt very proud, and I was almost expecting a high placement because of how well we’ve been doing at competitions,” JV Captain Camryn Lee ‘28 said. “My favorite part of performing was those small moments of eye contact with my teammates where we both felt good about performing.”

The Varsity team faced their largest pool of competitors yet, competing against 41 teams in prelims with the top 20 teams moving on to finals. Due to the sheer volume of competitors in the Scholastic A class, the class was split into three rounds of ten and one round of 11 to determine which teams went to finals. The Varsity placed third in their round of ten, and ninth amongst all teams in their class with a score of 79.18, moving onto finals. 

“I was so excited and proud of us because of how hard we worked to get to that moment as a team,” Abi Caudle ‘26 said. “I feel like the work we put it in definitely paid off but I wished I could have worked more despite being sick.”

Varsity managed to place higher in finals with a score of 81.29 in eighth place, earning their highest score of the season yet. Their show And I Think to Myself… garnered praise amongst both judges and audience members for its dedication to the city of Austin. The show diverges from the Varsity’s previous production Attention Earthlings with a more mellow soundtrack, and a theme that is more typical in Winter Guard shows.

“I was a little bit shocked to be honest, because in the past we’ve never even gotten close to making finals, so I’m super proud of our varsity team,” Alycia Chee ‘26 said. “We’ve put literal blood, sweat, and tears into this show and I feel like our efforts were finally recognized by the judges at this competition.”

The Color Guard Program’s competitive season is looking to have a fruitful end to one of its most technically challenging and rewarding seasons yet. Both teams’ morales are high, with members raring to make the most of the time they have left in the season. Both teams will be competing at TCGC Davenport this saturday, Mar. 8th.

Some may ask what does “heavy” really mean? Heavy metal gets its name from the actual description of its sound, combining slow tempo, low pitched, distorted guitars to create an effect of weight on the listener. This is generally seen as the standard for what metal should sound like for many musicians. Prioritizing creating heavy music has creatively stunted the metal community from making music that pushes the genre’s boundaries.

In an era where even the average person can start making music from home with cheap equipment, a lot of creativity is washed down by what “sells” by industry standards. This often comes down to making very simplified music that lacks a clear melodic structure. While there is nothing wrong with these types of music, seeing people turn to creating this kind of music does feel like a lot of potential is being wasted.

Rather than focusing on songwriting and melodic composition, many artists have started to gravitate towards focusing on production quality instead of creating unique sounding songs. This can range from fine tuning the tone of instruments to trying to automate audio production through the use of digital plug-ins and synthesizers. While the full utilization of audio technology in this era does show innovation in production, it somewhat sacrifices how much time and consideration is put into songwriting. Many artists believe that they can make good songs by prioritizing audio fine-tuning while de-prioritizing what it is that they’re fine tuning.

However, there is potential for music that both utilizes industry preferences and innovation to create music that is truly special. Take for instance progressive metal band Animals as Leaders, a pioneer in combining elements of other genres with metal to create one of the most unique sounds the community has ever had. From elements of jazz fusion to neoclassical, Animals as Leaders consistently produces music that is both heavy and has technical and emotional complexity.

One of the biggest points of controversy within the metal community is the “Progressive” Metal Scene and its validity as a genre of metal. In recent years, the interest of younger audience members has skewed towards combining ideas from traditional metal genres and genres such as neoclassical and math rock, that are both known for their technical complexity that pair well with the darker sounds of metal. Artists such as Periphery, Animals as Leaders and Architects have been at the forefront of this genre, creating music that challenges listeners’ idea of what metal can really be.

Industry standards are bound to plague most genres of music, but what is important is that musicians work past these barriers to create music that creatively represents who they are and the messages they want to convey. Metal does not have to be confined to a box of creating “Heavy” music and hyper fine-tuned production.

The series was conceived by Shigesato Itoi, a copywriter in Japan who became enamored with role-playing games (RPGs) after playing similar games like Dragon Quest. After working on an advertising deal for Nintendo, he tried to pitch his idea for a game that would utilize RPG elements in an everyday-setting where the protagonists had magic powers. Itoi hoped that the unique premise of the game would entice developers to pick up the project, but due to his lack of experience in the gaming industry, many were skeptical.

Itoi’s idea eventually started production through Nintendo Director Shigeru Miyamoto who believed that Itoi had what it took for the project. Itoi took charge of the script due to his background in writing, while he also took development of the game very seriously despite not having any background in game development. 

The series’ first title, Mother, was released in 1989 for the Nintendo Family Computer Disk System (Famicom) in Japan to much acclaim for its well-written story and the way it embraced RPG elements. Other RPG titles had been popular in Japan at the time leading to Mother being financially successful, and green-lit for another installment in the series. 

Mother’s story revolves around a boy named Ninten who is investigating paranormal activity across the United States. Ninten, along with his party of other children, search for the eight melodies of a song under the request of Queen Mary, the monarch of a magical realm called Magicant, all while facing conflict in different parts of the United States. Despite its lackluster battle mechanics, the setting and script of Mother’s characters are where it truly gets to shine. The parody of American culture gives the game opportunities to make even side characters have memorable dialogue that was unprecedented at the same time for RPG games.

While Mother was successful in Japan, it never found a release in the west for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was deemed commercially non-viable in the United States due to the lack of interest in the RPG genre and the costs associated with producing the game’s cartridge. The game had been fully translated and localized for release in the U.S., but was eventually shelved as a result of these obstacles.

While Mother was never officially released in the U.S., it still had a profound impact on another part of the Western gaming community: Emulation; the digital recreation of video game hardware to play video games on home computers. In 1998 a prototype cartridge of a fully translated and localized version Mother for the West was found and published online to the public domain as a Read-Only Memory (ROM) file. This kickstarted interest in emulation in the West, along with  fan-translations that eventually spread to other games with similar Japan-only releases.

Eventually, Mother 2 was released for the Super Famicom in 1994 as a sequel to Mother in Japan, and as a standalone title in the U.S. later that year under the Westernized title EarthBound. While the series once again found success in Japan, it was a commercial flop in the U.S. due to ineffective marketing and the lack of interest in the RPG genre at the time. Despite its inability to catch on in the United States, its quirky parody of American culture and genuinely emotional writing captured the eyes of fans across the world. Although it was a commercial failure, the game developed a cult following online that helped kick start its identity as a mainstay Nintendo intellectual property.

Mother 2 has a parallel plot structure to Mother, following the protagonist Ness collecting eight melodies of a song in order to stop an extraterrestrial evil, all while forming a group of companions to aid him in his battles. Despite how similar the plots of both games are, Mother 2 actually takes place in the same universe several years after Mother. The antagonist from Mother returns to the Earth to take revenge on humanity after Ninten and his allies defeated him in the first game. The series once again parodies American culture in Mother 2, but is praised widely for its better script, and colorful cast of characters. 

Fast forward to 2006, when the final game in the trilogy, Mother 3, was released for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) as a Japan-only exclusive game, much to the dismay of Mother fans in the West. The game once again received praise from Japanese fans for its rock-solid RPG mechanics as well as its emotionally driven story. The game had been stuck in development purgatory in the years leading up to its release due to changes in console and numerous development cancellations. 

The game initially started development for the Super Famicom before moving to the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (DD), hoping to give the game an immersive 3D experience, but the project was eventually scrapped due to the DD’s commercial failure in Japan. Project assets were reused for a potential release of the game on the upcoming Nintendo GameCube before being cancelled once more due to the complexity of programming 3D graphics at the time. Despite the project’s seemingly endless development cycle, it was eventually released only in Japan due to the perceived lack of interest in the U.S., and LGBTQ+ characters that Nintendo believed would be controversial in the US.

Despite fans of the series begging Nintendo to officially release Mother 3 in the West, Nintendo has never released plans to do so. Fortunately, Mother 3 received an unofficial English translation through the efforts of fans of the series on the forum Starmen.net. This ties back to the series’ prevalence in the emulation community, as the translation was created through hacking the game and releasing it as a ROM file. The translation was created purely as a love letter to the series and took thousands of hours and dollars from fans of the series to create.

In recent years emulation has become increasingly controversial due to issues with its legality, Nintendo has legally pursued several ROM collections and emulation softwares, and as a result playing the fan translation of Mother 3 has become incredibly difficult.

Although Mother had an unusual line of releases in the U.S., it still developed a massive global fanbase for its rock-solid gameplay and amazing storytelling. From emulation to translation to Westernization, there is no doubt that the series has had a profound impact on the video game industry, and will be remembered as an important landmark for the gaming world.

The JV team has been rehearsing their show Birds of a Feather bi-weekly since last December preparing to perform it in TCGC and Winter Guard International (WGI) competitions. The show’s soundtrack consists of Air Waltz by Oliver Davis and I’m Like a Bird by Nelly Furtado accompanied by sounds of birds and nature in order to create an experience that represents a flock of birds. The costumes for the show are the same costumes that were used in the Warrior Band’s 2023 production Birds on a Wire, which inspired the theme of this show.

“I think our show is very unique because of the bird theme,” V Carmona ‘28 said. “It feels very upbeat and pretty, and the choreo works well with the theme.”

The show starts off with an ensemble dance surrounding rifle soloist Selene Johnson ‘28, before spreading out into a division of a rifle and flag line performing choreo that compliments both the music and other performers. While the show is not currently finished, the team has learned their partner feature as well as their flag feature, which they showcased at TCGC Dripping Springs.

“I really love our flag feature because it’s really fun to perform it.” Basil Brenneman ‘28 said. “We are all super in time during that part but I think I need to improve my performance to the crowd during it.”

Having been most JV members’ first season of Winter Guard, members got to experience competition procedures and customs for the first time such as warm-ups, a vertical schedule, and moving the tarp through the competition. The team performed their show at 3:44 PM and spent the rest of the day watching other Winter Guards.

“The run felt pretty good to me being our first competition and the practice we’ve had so far,” Carmona said. “I think I did my best, but I could work on rifle [choreography] a bit more.”

While the JV team successfully brought home a trophy for their first competition, they still have more of their show to learn and master for their next competition.

“I’m proud to have placed third, especially considering we had several people who had never done colorguard before,” JV Captain Michael Flagg ‘28 said. “I think we all did amazing, and we worked really hard for the placement we earned, but there’s always things we could improve on.”

The JV Winter Guard will compete next at TCGC Akins on Feb. 1st.

This year was UT Austin’s peak in applicants, with an increase from 60,000 to over 90,000 freshman applicants. It is speculated that the UT Office of Admissions was not equipped to process all of the early admission applications in time for the initially set early admission decision release date. While most applications were pushed back to Saturday, Feb. 15th, students initially showed confusion in regards to the message displayed on UT Austin’s application portal which at first did not specify if applicants were deferred or simply did not have their application reviewed yet, a phenomenon that has never been seen from any office of admissions before.

“When I initially applied to UT [back in my senior year,] there were students that got deferred but not to the extent that of this year’s deferrals,” current UT student Adisri Mohapatra, said. “It’s definitely frustrating that seniors still have to wait to hear their decision despite applying for early admission.”

After being informed of the issue, admission officials at UT posted a new message later on Thursday, Jan. 16th, aiming to clarify the situation to the students whose admissions were pushed back to Feb. 15th. These students received a new message on UT Austin’s application portal notifying them that their applications had been reviewed and were officially deferred, clarifying the confusion around the state of their applications. While a small portion of students received admission during this cycle, most students have shown frustration in regards to this situation due to the fact that despite putting in the necessary work to meet the early admission deadline, they are expected to receive their decision later than they were told.

“I would have appreciated some transparency about the admissions situation before January 15th so that I wouldn’t have expected my decision that day,” Mikhail Kliachenkov ‘25 said. “I’m surprised there wasn’t any communication from UT before this happened.”

While most freshman early action applicants were deferred to Saturday, Feb. 15th, the 5% that did receive their decision were all acceptances, with little to none denials or alternate admissions pathways. Students expecting their applications remain hopeful as they wait for admissions decisions.

“Having a deferral rather than being offered the CAP program this admissions cycle has kept me hopeful,” Kliachenkov said. “There’s nothing seniors can do except wait and see what happens.”