After practice, a color guard student waves goodbye to a team member and leaves the band room to go home. Walking toward the school parking lot, they catch a glimpse of the soccer game and watch the crowd cheer as lights shine over each player. Sighing, they get into their car to drive home.

With many physical activities to participate in today, students have the opportunity to join any extracurricular they want. Unfortunately, with little to no recognition, many members of color guard and other activities go without any acknowledgment of their sport.

Over the years, many schools have cheered and shouted for numerous sports on their campus, but less popular sports, such as color guard, winter guard and competitive dance, do not receive the same support. Additionally, not only do some school sports gain little support, but their athletes are ostracized by their peers because of the sport’s unpopularity. As competitive as high school sports are, their communities everywhere have become exclusive.

Color guard has developed as an offshoot of performing bands, eventually offshooting and becoming a new sport entirely— color guard being an innovation of marching band itself, it was initially recognized during the 1970s after being influenced by military marching styles.

Creating a show with exceptional music and dancing requires focus and dedication. The act of putting on a show to tell a story needs commitment. While marching band and color guard sounds like an amazing experience, many individuals have found it difficult to pursue because of harmful remarks.

Sports communities have become discriminating against any activity that does not fit the description of a traditional sport. Many people are unwilling to experience a performance from marching bands because they assume the program does not work hard enough, or they consider it a thoughtless pastime.

Society today has made it easy to discard different ambitions by criticizing and placing a label on these dreams. Letting high school sport communities continue holding onto this negative and detrimental mentality encourages zero sportsmanship and prevents positivity toward the students interested in some sports. People should encourage each other to pursue their passions and always support them.