Team members share focuses of new semester

As the winter guard team prepares for their February performances, they advance their skills by building upon the past semester. Performing in the 73rd annual Pismo Clam Festival, Fresno Veterans Day Parade, Clovis Children’s Electric Lights Parade and many of the campus football games, the guard now focuses on fine-tuning their performance for their first show, Feb. 1.

Five-year winter guard coach Michelle Rodriguez guides the team as they clean up their routine for the first presentation. She walks through each element of the dance until the students memorize the steps.

“Throughout this past semester our focus was having our spinning be more controlled,” Rodriguez said. “We are moving onto a whole new circuit this year and because of that we want to make sure that our level of how we approach our equipment and our dance work with our performance.”

With numerous upcoming performances, the winter guard team is determined to perfect their choreography. As the first performance lies ahead, the group adds in the final touches to their routine.

“We have our first performance at Lemoore High School this Saturday,” Rodriguez said. “There are three more coming up at Sierra High School and then we have our final performance over at the college over there in Visalia.”

In the following podcast, Shane Phillips interviews Shauna Howard, ’20, about color guard and winter guard differences.

Color guard member since seventh grade, Shauna Howard, ’20, explains the differences between color guard and winter guard.

“Color guard is during the fall season and winter guard is during the winter season,” Howard said. “Color guard consists of marching band, so band is also included in color guard; that’s when we do parades, such as the Veterans Day Parade, and usually we only use flag and rifle.

Howard discusses the various elements that define the guard’s competition season.

“Winter guard is our competitive season when we actually compete against other guards,” Howard continued. “We use flags, rifles and sabers and we put on a performance; it’s not marching, it’s a show.”

With many challenges throughout the past semester, the greatest one has been the students opening up to one another and communicating. The group works to overcome this obstacle and work together to perfect choreography and dance moves.

“The greatest challenge for the students this year was just to have them open up more as a team to get them to bond more,” Rodriguez said. “We do have an age gap but I’m really proud of all the seniors and all of the underclassmen because they are able to bond more and there are a lot of stuff in the show where they have to rely on one another and they have done that really well.”

Winter guard will have their first performance at Lemoore High School at 11:45 a.m., Feb. 1. Make sure to go out and support your campus winter guard team!

For another article, read COLUMN: Seniors travel to Israel for a new perspective on scripture or Fantasy Football Talk: Super Bowl Edition.

Shane Philips can be reached via email.

The slideshow below contains images from winter guards performance in the high school Scholastic Regional, Feb. 1.

Gallery • 6 Photos