Justin Siegmund, Central’s youngest color guard coach, joins the Marching Maroons this 2025-2026 season to help choreograph and coach in this year’s marching band show: For The Birds. When asked about the current season, Justin explained how excited he is for the future of this group.”The potential is in their hands. It all depends on how much they want to do… however hard they are willing to work is how far they’ll go.” said Siegmund.
Color guard is an activity that traditionally has members dance with flags, model rifles, and sabers. These props are tossed, spun, and waved to catch the eye of all of the audience. Color guard requires a mix of dance and dexterity to manage the flag and to make the fantastic formations and movements imagined by the choreographers.
Image of the Old Tappan Band, taken by Joseph S. Butz on the USBands Facebook page under Creative Commons license.
Siegmund started marching band his sophomore year of high school because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, after his freshman year being online. Before color guard, he was an alto saxophone player for his school’s marching band and he had many friends in the color guard. “My color guard friends asked, ‘Hey Justin, do you want to try to toss a flag?’ and I started doing it and I did it every rehearsal,” said Siegmund. This was some of his first experience with flag-work. The guard instructor approached him and asked him if he was interested in winter guard.
Winter guard is exclusively done in the winter after the fall marching band season. These shows usually have more storytelling or thematic elements to them, letting the choreographers express themselves in many new ways. “That winter season, I joined the winter guard, and the rest was history. I did color guard every marching band year, and it became a bigger aspect of who I was,” said Siegmund. In 2023 and 2024, he joined DCI, which is a competitive marching band and is one of the highest levels of it and color guard in the US, but is restricted to people under 21.
One big obstacle for Siegmund has been balancing color guard and college. Siegmund is currently at the University of Illinois studying physics and secondary education. He is hoping to be a high school or college physics teacher after inspiration from his junior year physics teacher, Mr. Neugem. “I’ve always sort of been a numbers person. So when I finally met the physics realm with the numbers it sort of clicked,” said Siegmund.
His attendance has been heavily impacted by his obligations as a college freshman. His schedule has been to go to rehearsals only on Thursdays, Friday, and their two evening guard rehearsals a week. Luckily, Siegmund has an apartment on the western side of town making it a short ride to his classes and central for rehearsals. “I think him not being there every day isn’t that bad because we already know what we need to work on,” said Siva Senthilkumar, a freshman member of color guard.
The last coach, Mrs. Mitchell, and Siegmund have many differences besides the age difference, they have many differences with things like their technique and attitude towards the guard. Some guard members have mentioned how he is more serious and competitive than Mrs. M and he has lots more to do in rehearsals. “Because he’s so young, he has a lot of energy, and I think he wants us to do a lot and doesn’t really understand how young we are, so sometimes it can’t be done,” said Alexis Houston, a sophomore color guard member.
Color guard is a really amazing activity and takes time to perfect, but it can be worth it in the end. “I think we are such a niche activity that really the best way for us to gain traction is through the word of mouth of other people… the more impact we’re talked about, the more impact we can have, because it is such a meaningful thing,” said Siegmund.
Justin has lots of ideas planned for this winter guard season and says, “it will either go amazingly or fail undoubtedly, and I’m giving it to them because I know what this group can do, but they need to set their mind to it,” said Siegmund. Remember to keep up to date with winter guard to see what amazing show Justin Siegmund can create this year.
