Color guard captain Siham Al-Adam embraces flags and jazz shoes, and sometimes glitter and bruises, to lead the color guard team to success.  

 “My sister was in band and told me about color guard,” Al-Adam said.

She said that color guard interested her and she decided to try out. Siham said that “learning new tricks” and “moving around a six-foot pole” are some of the difficulties everyone faces when they join color guard.  

Siham knows about those difficulties.  

Her freshman year, the color guard team was made up of more experienced members than new, and because of that, the tosses that were thrown were a little more advanced.  

Siham struggled with this new toss, the merry sunshine, but she knew that no matter how many times she failed, she’d keep trying because she’d get it eventually. She had no choice.  

“It took me doing the toss over and over until I stopped running away from it,” she said. “Then having a couple of people watching my toss and giving me correction.”

The corrections were about where to grab the  flag and how to stand when tossing and her feet. 

 “I finally got the toss,” she said. “Last, I just did the toss over and over until I could not mess it up.” 

Siham said she has grown a lot in her color guard career. Now, she’s the captain.  

“I like how everyone looks up to me and asks me questions,” she said.

As captain, Siham said she likes how everyone trusts her to give them the right information. 

She said being the captain is “like a double-edged sword.” 

What she means is that color guard can be fun sometimes, but other times, it’s serious and guard members have to take care of business.  

Since this her last year with the color guard team, she would like to be remembered as “a person that was a good captain and wasn’t separated from the guard.”  

Two former members that Siham looks up to are Jessica Jensen, 2018-2019 captain, and Yolanda Nava, 2016-2017 captain. She looked up to Jessica because she always pushed herself to be better and she looked up to Yolanda because she was a great captain.  

“It made me want to push myself to be like them,” she said.

 Since this is Siham’s last year with the Chisholm Trail color guard, she has some goals, especially since she is captain.  

Siham said her goal for her senior year is to “see improvement with new people and to enjoy my last year.”