Winter guard is a competitive indoor sport that takes a clever spin off of color guard. Unlike color guard, which performs in front of a live band, winter guard performs to recorded music and includes choreographed dances with flags, rifles and sabers. Their season began in November and ends in April. Currently, the team meets weekly from 5–8 p.m. every Monday and Wednesday in the band room as well as the gym based on its availability.
Grouping up before their performance, the Red Mountain Winter Guard team poses for a photo. (Photo Courtesy of Aubrie Oliver)
“This season is a difficult show to portray since it deals with overcoming the people and things in your life that can hold you back, which can be hard to convey to the audience,” Guard Instructor Ms. Oliver said. “But, the team has done a great job enacting their characters.”
This year’s show title is known as “Resilient” and is performed to Will Champlin, Lauren Duski and KHS’s cover of the song “Praying” by Kesha. Matching the show’s theme, the guard members all have dark purple uniforms with an attachable gold over-dress piece that they put on near the end of the show to represent that they have come out of their dark times and are now full of bright hopes. The team’s entire season revolves around this theme.
During their performance, senior Benjamin Stobart holds up another team member. (Photo Courtesy of Aubrie Oliver)
“The whole show is leading up to that moment of coming out in gold to show that we have overcome our struggles and have become resilient,” senior Robyn Reeves said. “I always think about performing as best as I can for someone who has never seen the show before so that they can be surprised and understand that message.”
They kicked off their season with a bang with their first performance at the Evaluation (EVAL) show which exhibited the bare bones of their performance and offered feedback from judges on what direction to transform their concepts into for the rest of the season. After taking the feedback from there, the team jumped into their first competition at Williams Field High School on Feb. 23 where they received second place with a score of 50.6. Following closely after, the team had their second competition on Feb. 24 at Casa Grande High School where Winter Guard Arizona (WGAZ) gave them a score of 57.2 which put them in fifth place at that competition. A week later, the team attended their third competition at Desert Vista High School on March 3 and received a score of 68.29 ranking them in third place. With their upcoming competitions, the team continues to push harder in hopes to make it to Championships, where last year they placed second.
After winning 2nd place in their competition at Casa Grande High School, the Red Mountain Winter Guard team poses for a photo. (Photo Courtesy of Aubrie Oliver)
“Our goal every year is to make our students better performers than they were in the beginning of the season,” Ms. Oliver said. “Sometimes that means that we score very high, but sometimes we are just as proud of the freshman member that finally catches their toss.”
The team has already attended multiple competitions and strives to reach even higher as the competitions continue. To learn more about winter guard, contact Coach Oliver at aubrieoliver@gmail.com.
(Featured Photo Courtesy of Aubrie Oliver)
ROAR 
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