Nationally known Color Guard designer Rosie Queen brought her skills to Fossil Ridge High School’s Color Guard in September.

Queen was inducted into the Winter Guard International Hall of Fame in 2023. Her experience includes working with the WGI’s organizational and competitive scenes, including at Carmel High School where they are a 5-time National Class Champion.

Queen’s focus with the Fossil Color Guard included work on uniform design, flag silks, graphics, and drill.

“She came highly recommended as one of the best Color Guard designers,” Fossil band director Aaron Herman said. “She was interested in what our program’s been to the past couple years, and wanted to get involved.”

Fossil’s marching band has also earned recognition, most recently winning this year’s New Mexico Bands of America competition. Fossil’s band has also earned awards in outstanding music, visual performance and general effects.

“It’s a pretty big honor to know that our band program is starting to get some recognition, not just in Colorado, but across the country,” Herman said. “We’ve been very fortunate to have some really smart people that are willing to come work with us and excited to be in front of our students.”

During her visit, Queen helped fill in choreography and drill with the band’s giant snowball prop for this year’s show, titled “Coldplay.”

“She saw how hard all the students are working,” Herman said. “She was very impressed by the Color Guard specifically.”

The Color Guard appreciated Queen’s attention to detail.

“With the short time we did get with her, in just the little things she changed will get a lot of credit for that,” said senior Hannah Beaven, the Color Guard captain.