Flags spin and rifles are tossed high into the air, hopes for a flawless routine drive the winter guard team to place first in competitions.

Coach Lacey Miranda balances college and her new coaching position. After her four years at Washington Union in color guard and being a section leader and captain, she uses her experience to lead the girls.

“I took this job because one of my passions is color guard/winter guard,” Miranda said. “I have been involved in it for six years now. I absolutely love it and I love to be apart of it anyway I can. This was a great opportunity to do just that.”

While only five girls are on winter guard, the team practices twice a week: Tuesday and Thursdays from 4:30-7:30 P.M. The color guard team performed during parade season with the band; now called winter guard, the group competes in local gyms to the song “Don’t Wake Me Up” by The Hush Sound.

“Each of the girls’ qualities contributes highly to the team,” Miranda said. “Jessica’s (Massie, ’11) dance experience has helped us put together great dance moves. Jackie’s (Cowin, ’10) attack of the giggles gets us all giggling, and she just makes me laugh. Alexandrah (Aleman ’10) works so hard and is really dedicated.

“Alyssa (Quenzer, ’10) would have to be most improved,” Miranda continued. “She has learned so quickly and is doing absolutely great. And Sarah (Barnett, ’10), our guard captain, is the master. I rely on her to remember all the work I teach and she does just that. She is also a great performer. She leads by example.”

As she balances school and coaching, Miranda loves the guard and looks forward to making top-three finishes. And Miranda is close in age to her team, so a close bond between them has already been made.

“It can be a handful teaching high school girls,” Miranda said. “But this is also so much fun. It really depends on the girls I am working with. I taught Sunnyside High’s team before coming to Fresno Christian and it was a big difference. Everyone is different. But I love teaching high school.”

The winter guard squad place fourth in Regional A Gold Division at the Clovis East competition, Jan. 25.

“I like how we get to use flags and rifles in our routines,” Barnett said. “I also like the artistic side to the performances, winter guard is a lot of hard work and is sometimes painful.”

Although the girls placed fourth, Miranda hopes to fix the mistakes in the winter guard routine and strive for perfection.

“We are working towards a flawless routine,” Aleman said. “We can accomplish that goal and we can work together to grow another step towards first place, but it will be a lot of work.”

The next competition will be Feb. 15 Clovis North. Performance time is at 7:17 P.M.

“It would be great to have some fans and should maybe come check out one of the shows to see what this is all about,” Lacey said. “Its definitely a lot more work than people think. Next year one of our goals is to make our guard bigger. So anyone interested at all just let me know, I just really want people to know how hard these girls are working and would like people to support them in what they are doing.”

For a wrap-up on last year’s winter guard season, read Kristina Palmer’s May 9, 2007, article, Winter guard retires flags.