“Winter Guard. For those who understand, no explanation needed. For those who don’t, no explanation possible. It is the only sport where you can whip it, strip it and flip it in public,” freshman Natalie Griffin said.

Winter Guard is a fun, extended indoor Color Guard/dance activity performed in an indoor gymnasium area.

“A lot of my friends that were in color guard and now doing winterguard asked me and were encouraging me to join so I decided to try it out and I really enjoy it,” freshman Grace Dressler said.

Winter Guard uses different colors and styles of flags, rifles, and sabers to enhance the visual effect of recorded music.

Although Winter Guard uses a lot of the same techniques as Color Guard, the two are also a lot different in comparison.

“In my opinion, the show is much more difficult,” McCann said, “There is different music and we perform inside rather than on the field. There is only one song, no band and Winter Guard is more time consuming and takes a lot more effort.”

Some students may think Winter Guard is a club that anybody can join, but that’s not completely true. This sport can help you earn half a credit going towards fine arts and can even help people earn scholarships to colleges.

“This season, I am most excited to see what the guard can accomplish. We have nine members with only one member with previous guard experience,” coach Amber Hess said “I am very excited to see the members challenge themselves and work hard to reach their goals. I know they are going to have a lot of fun!”

Students involved in Winter Guard come in before school some days and stay after school two to three days a week for three hours each day for practice that will pay off during their annual competitions, like Winter Guard International in St. Louis.

Some people may wonder if Winter Guard is a sport. The answer is yes!

“We start with stretching and dance basics. Then we go on to across the floors, which are basically jazz walks and runs and other dance basics, to learning and cleaning the routine and doing run throughs,” Griffin said.

The Winter Guard team balances their school works with practice time. That is why the girls like to spend their free time bonding together as a team.

“This season is the second annual bowl-a-thon where we get pledges to donate money that will help pay for our costumes, shoes and other things,” Griffin said, “We go to retro bowl one day before practice and have fun and bowl as a team.”

Not only does Winter Guard have an annual bowl-a-thon to raise money, there are also multiple times throughout the season when the team sells chocolate bars to students, teachers and parents to help with costs and admission to competitions.

Since there weren’t enough girls moving from Color Guard to Winter Guard, the team had to have Winter Guard tryouts for anyone who wanted to be a part of the team. Members of Color Guard were in charge of teaching new members the basics and give out information.

Winter Guard competitions have requirements that each team has to have in order to be eligible to compete.

“The team has to have at least five members depending on what division we fit under to be eligible for competition. The team has to have a routine that meets specific standards for what the competition requirements are,” Dressler said.

The team is planning to have a successful season with nine members consisting of eight freshmen and one senior.

‘’I wanted to join Winter Guard because all of my friends in Color Guard were planning on doing it as well and I loved the thought of performing and competing at a more difficult level,’’ McCann said “They’re not “poles,” they’re flags. They’re not “guns,” they’re rifles. They’re not “swords,” they’re sabers. We don’t “twirl,” we spin. We don’t “throw,” we toss.”