As summer draws closer, the Winter Guard team retires their flags after the last competition of the year. The legacy left by this year?s group of flag twirlers included a marked development of their skills.

During their first competition in January, Winter Guard scored second to last out of 17 groups. Despite discouragement, the team pulled together and steadily improved over the next three months.

The Guard began the season with seven team members, which decreased to five people as the months progressed. In order for the team to gain unity, the Winter Guard began practicing a minimum of nine hours a week.

?The season started off really rocky,? Sarah Barnett, ’10, said. ?There was a lot of work involved. By the end it was all worth it. At the beginning of the season we didn?t expect to do too well in competition because four out of the five of us were new. The scores at the beginning of the season were discouraging because we had low scores even though we worked hard. We all decided the amount of work we needed to do and persevered through it all.?

On competition day, five girls nursed symptoms of nervousness and excitement and prepared to apply months of practice and skill for one last time.

?I felt that I gave everything I had and ‘I left it all on the floor’,” Alexandrah Aleman, ’10, said. ?That is a phrase our coach tells us to do; she wants us to leave all of our emotion we put into that show and let it go all on the floor. The fact that we competed against schools who had people that have been doing this longer than we have encouraged us; it really felt good to have the recognition that they give you at the shows.?

The extra rehearsals seemed to have paid off and the group appeared to gain skill and harmony at the Winter Guard International Championships on March 30. The team placed third out of the six participating schools in the Regional AA division. First place was awarded to Exeter High School and second place to Clovis East High. Only 1.6 points separated the team from achieving the second place medal.

?I felt we gave all we had even though we still messed up on little things,? Aleman said. ?We still tried as hard as we could. I thought we came a long way from where we were in the past, placing second to last, then fourth, and then placing third at championships; it was a very rewarding experience.?

Although the Winter Guard is expected to remain small next season, the team hopes to gain more experience and grow closer as a team.

?I thought that even though we lost some people this season,? Aleman said. ?We still held ourselves together and kept our energy on the floor and we stuck together as a team. I am definitely going to miss the seniors that I have grown to look up to and appreciate, as well as being on a team with them. We have spent most of our evenings together, so it is going to be hard to have a team without them. We also know that the rest of us are not experienced enough to carry on without them. It will be a learning experience all over again next year.?

Senior captain, Breanne Gandolfo, looks back on the year with the new coaches, Kim Done and Alexandra Boetger.

?I?m happy with our performance because in other competitions we got 15th, 7th and 8th,? Gandolfo said. ?The new coaches helped us experience what it was to really be in guard.?

Former coach, Chris Rice, believes the Guard improved over the season.

?The Color Guard did an amazing job on the 30th,? Rice said. ?I could not be any happier for them. They proved themselves through long and hard practices, weekend and late night rehearsals, and the adversity of this being their first season as performers.

For more information check out Suzanna Quiring?s article, Winter Guard faces WGI.