Unitard, Blue crop top, leggings, jazz shoes, rifle and a flag. Who owns all of these? None other than Color Guard Captain and senior Tatum Hochmuth.
Hochmuth has been on color guard for four years she was enticed by the colorful posters. After joining she went on to be a captain for her last year as a senior. The EHS Color Guard Team is more like a family and Hochmuth is like an older sister giving advice and helping her teammates through everything.
“She was good at being there for us by helping us do drop spins, tosses, and more,” freshman Ashlyn Forget said.
Being a captain, Hochmuth helped the team get the work down when Coach Madi couldn’t be there. She might have been harsh, but she knew what she was doing, and she was just trying to make the performance perfect.
“It felt like she picked on us but really she’s helping us look good on the field and on stage,” Forget said.
As captain and a senior Hochmuth did a lot for the team. She had experience and she knew what she was doing. At try outs she helped to welcome the new people and help them learn the basics. After teaching that she got to witness the team grow.
“Being able to see all the new faces and see they grow from the first to last day,” Hochmuth said.
Hochmuth worked hard in color guard even though she had other things she could have been doing like work and keeping up with her school work. At ISDTA State this year color guards biggest performance Tatum was clearly not feeling well and she still came and performed 100 percent.
“She always put her love into her team and work,” Forget said.
Tatum was helpful this year as a captain and she will be missed by many people on the team whether they admit it or not.
“I’ll miss my team. They’re a second family,” Hochmuth said.
While color guard is a big part of who Hochmuth is she is more than just color guard she is also a dedicated graduating senior. When Hochmuth joins something, she is dedicated. Even though color guard is time consuming grades must stay up to be able to perform.
“For a while, balancing school, work and color guard was a struggle. I started falling behind in school. So, I started cutting my hours at work and dedicating days where I didn’t have anything going on to sitting down and getting what I needed done to pass all my classes, “ Hochmuth said.
Hochmuth works at Hy-Vee and next year she will be headed to Iowa State for college. She has a bright future ahead of her with college and jobs to pay for college but with her dedication she is excited.
“I’m pretty excited about working two jobs. 1 will be full-time and the other will be part time. So that’s more money for college,” Hochmuth said.
In her future Hochmuth knows what she wants to do. She is ready and can already see who she will grow up to be.
“I see myself as a social worker, I want to help in child services, “ Hochmuth said.