Indoor Color Guard proudly display their champion status coming in first at the Wildwood, NJ, competition. Photo by Elisa Matos
By Elisa Matos and Sandy Sanchez
After taking a three year break, the PHS Indoor Color Guard, also known as the Pulse of Passaic, has come back, and they are better than ever! The Pulse of Passaic started back in 2003, under the direction of Mr. Christopher Rusca and Meagan Apgar.
The Pulse was strengthened every year. Practicing and perfecting various programs and giving many students a chance to work with the band, until the 2011 season. That was the last season for a while, but many students wanted to show their talents. Therefore, with a lot of work and dedication from students and teachers, the Pulse returned for the 2014 season.
From there they continued until 2016, which was a particularly rough year for the color guard. The season was canceled halfway, to the frustration of all those involved.
However, to be the best, Indians do not give up. We came back stronger and harder than ever. There would not be an indoor guard this year if it not for the hard work and dedication of senior, Daniel DeJesus. He helped organize members of the indoor color guard. They mentioned and convinced Mr.Rusca that they were interested and more importantly, committed giving a rebirth to the Pulse. The rest is history!
With the indoor season for 2019 approved, organizers needed to find a song and create a show. As if just to show that it could be done, they took the unfinished show from 2016, and finished it. Jennifer Sanchez, Joanne Majdanski,Omar Garcia, Jeanabelle Reyes, and Louis Ballenger came together and created the amazing show, in such little time. Indoor color guard usually starts around November but we did not start until late January.
Incorporating new styles of dance, flag and rifle work, new formations, and, of course, new members. This hard work paid off when The Pulse won first place at the Wildwood competition! Mr. Omar Garcia, one of the staff members who also happened to be in the 2016 edition of the show, said, “I’m very excited to restart this show with a new group of kids. They work hard and deserve credit.”
The miraculous comeback was due to the many members of the team and the staff that advised and coached them. Jennifer Sanchez, Omar Garcia, and Christopher Rusca believe that hard work, dedication and overall team bonding led to such a successful season. “The closer we started to become, as a color guard the better we got, spinning wise and overall just a better team” said Mr. Rusca. He definitely believes that hard work got the color guard to their success.
Mr. Garcia said, “The days prior to a competition were usually the days with the most energy and when that energy was used in the right way, they were unstoppable”. Mrs. Sanchez added, “The most important aspect of what made this season so successful was the dedication and the desire to want to keep learning.”
Now that there is a season of success on the roster of PHS history, there is a reputation to live up too. Work for next year is already under way. Daniel DeJesus said, “I am so proud of what we accomplished this year, and so happy that we are trying to keep that success going through next year.”
The Pulse needs to remain, the BEST!
