***This article was written by Joey Drawyer, a participant of The Kewanee Voice Student Journalism Program, funded by the Harry Anderson Memorial Trust.
With the start of the football season comes a not-so-new addition to the Annawan-Wethersfield Marching Titans Band.
The marching bands began their co-op last year with new directors Patrick Wilson from Wethersfield and Quinne Weinzierl. They expressed their hope to restart the color guard program, and this year, the Titans got just that.
Although Quinne Weinzierl left Annawan at the end of the school year, the new director, Will Schehl, and Wilson put together a color guard team of four students, two from each school. Their debut was seen at the first home football game at the Wethersfield field.
The color guard squad is currently being coached by Wilson. However, he is open for anyone with experience in the sport to contact him and speak about collaborating.
In the past, Annawan and Wethersfield had their own color guards. Students lost interest in the guard, which ultimately led to their dissolvements. Their programs ended at separate times, and the last time a color guard program was available was in 2021 at Wethersfield.
According to Wilson, he and Weinzierl planned to become familiar with their positions and the co-op before adding new programs. During the 2024-25 school year, it was apparent that the interest in color guard may have been resurfacing.
“One Wethersfield student asked if we were going to bring back the color guard for 2025,” said Wilson. “That prompted the Annawan director and myself to survey the students and see if there was enough interest to start it this year.”
As we now know, there was.
