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Photo courtesy Jordan Jarvis

Winterguard competes at the CWEA Championships. The team works hard to perfect their synchronized movements.

During the fall, the Colorguard team at Reagan is seen every Friday night perfor

ming their impressive routines along with the marching band. However, what many people don’t know is that once football ends, the season is only beginning for many of the girls on Guard.

Guard performs either with or without the band, and put on impressive shows that combine flag and riffle tosses and dance.

Winterguard is a smaller team, consisting of 16 girls in comparison to Colorguard’s 22. The skills that the team uses are of a higher level of difficulty than those seen in fall performances, and their show does not include the marching band.

“The work is more planned out, and everything has to be exactly perfect,” junior Jordan Jarvis said. “The work is for girls of a higher skill level.”
The girls practice from 15 to 16 hours per week during their competition season, which starts in December and ends in March, and rehearse up to five days a week to be fully prepared to compete. The practices can be long, sometimes up to eight hours on the weekends, and the hard work of the team has paid off.

“Most people don’t understand the process of putting a show together and how the show can change from week to week due to any critiques the judges may have,” senior Laura Grace said. “The final product is just the tip of the iceberg compared to all of the work the team puts in.”

In addition to the traditional Guard flags, the team added other elements to their show.

“This year we added rifles,” sophomore Ella Riddick said. “It’s been difficult, but I really enjoy it.”

Each show has a theme, portrayed through the music and choreography of the routine. This season, the show was titled “After Time” and was created to express the pain of separation with a loved one. To say the routine was successful would be an understatement. Winterguard competed at five competitions this season and took home first place at each event.

On March 25, Winterguard competed at the Carolina Winter Ensemble Association Cham

pionships and won the event over the 23 other teams competing from both North Carolina and South Carolina.

“Winning means for us that all of our hard work has paid off,” Jarvis said. “I’m so proud of how far we’ve come to be able to perform at this level.”

The team member’s relationships with each other is a part of their success competing and performing together, whether it’s at practice or at the competition.

“It’s our ability to push each other to do our best,” Grace said. “During water breaks and before the practices there are always girls to helping each other with difficult tosses or movements in the show.”

The teamwork is evident in the performances, and the girls make it look like getting sixteen flags in the air at the same time and angle is a piece of cake.

“The most rewarding part is that I get to be a part of such a hardworking group,” Riddick said. “We put a lot of time and eff

ort into Guard, and it really shows.”

As the season ends for Winterguard, the girls are already looking forward to the fall season, and be

gin to plan for their Colorguard tryouts later this spring.

“We’re all just so happy and proud,” said Riddick. “I’ll definitely be doing it next year.”