Senior Courtney Rains has a heart for forms of expression that don’t involve speaking.

As the captain of the Color Guard in its inaugural year at West, Rains was in charge of setting the pace for the new team. They all had to learn flags and dances for the halftime show at football games.

“I like being a leader, and I liked helping these people that hadn’t picked up a flag before. I was the only one on the team that had done flag in the past, and they really needed somebody to lead them,” Rains said.

Her love for dance and color guard extends beyond the school’s team.

“I’m actually now on a winter guard team, it’s not with West, but at winter guard, we do all that, it’s just inside. It’s a group of girls all around the schools. We choose a song for the season, and we just do different sections, we do either flag or rifle or sabre in it, and we also dance to it too, so it all comes together and makes like a big story,” Rains said.

Dancing provides one outlet for expression, but Rains has another passion.

“I am studying interpretive sign language, so right now I’m in sign language at JCCC. A long time ago, I saw a video of an interpreter, interpreting for a music artist and I thought that would be so much fun to do that as a career, to be on stage and interpreting,” Rains said.

Rains plans to study at Johnson County Community College and hopes to get into the three year sign language program there.

“I want to help people, I don’t just want to sit around on a computer, and I feel like helping out with the deaf community and making a change would be great,” Rains said.

Whether tossing flags in the air, dancing or interpreting in sign language, Rains is set with a passion for expression, no spoken words needed.