The Lake Highlands Winterguard placed 6th at the North Texas Colorguard Association State Championship.
Winterguard is an indoor performance activity where they throw and dance with flags and rifles. It’s similar to what the performers do with the marching band in the fall, which is called colorguard, except they don’t have live music with the band, and they are the main focus of the performance.
“Many colorguard students like winterguard more as we are able to do more advanced choreography since the focus has shifted from the marching band…to us,” said Cate Recer (11), section and flagline leader.
The group went to three other NTCA competitions this season: Naaman Forest, Wylie East, and Poteet. They placed 4th at Wylie East and 1st at Poteet. They also hosted the RISD Winterguard Showcase which is not a competition but a way for all RISD winterguards to perform for their family and friends.
Competitions are scored on a scale from 1-100. There are many judges involved in the scoring process. There’s a separate judge for equipment, movement, and design analysis scores, and there are two to three judges to score the general effect of their performance. They combine all these numbers for a final score.
Guards can be penalized for going out of bounds, violating rules, making mistakes, and incorrect performance length. However, they’re also scored on how well they can recover from mistakes.
“If someone makes a mistake and has a really quick and smooth recovery, we could even gain points from it,” Recer explained.
They started the audition process before Thanksgiving break, and they staged their show in December. After winter break, they started having afterschool rehearsals two times a week along with their class period on A-days. This comes to a total of about 9-10 hours of rehearsal every week.
The colorguard director, Amanda Harrison, taught the team fundamental skills as a strong foundation for their success. She also showed them other successful colorguard teams to give them a model and goal to work towards. Harrison not only supported her team through colorguard, but in all aspects of their lives.
“[I helped them succeed by] being there for them to support them, not just in an educational standpoint but in their emotional and academic careers as well,” Harrison commented.
The winterguard overcame many obstacles, but they had a very successful season that everyone on the team can be proud of.
“Even with difficulties of members moving schools or participating in other sports, they still showed dedication to winterguard and helped us score higher and higher each performance,” said Jayla Irving (12), section leader.
