Winter guard performed at the pep rally for the first time this year on Jan. 27 and made it to finals in every competition with their new coach, Brandon Fink.
“The pep rally was a way to perform in front of an audience, but not get graded or judged,” sophomore and winter guard participant Nicole Lloyd said. “It was a way to get all of our fears out and to just show the school what we can accomplish.
The pep rally was actually the team’s first time performing this season, right before their competition. The winter guard used the winter pep rally as a way to practice and run-through their performance.
“I feel like we’ve improved as a guard, since Brandon challenges us to develop and grow as performers,”senior and winter guard participant Jeremy Fink said. “There feels like a real opportunity for us to go far as we go through more competitions and add more to the show.”
The team spent a lot of time working on the choreography and flag work so that everyone was confident and comfortable with it.
“I feel like this year everyone is putting in twice the effort to learn the work,” senior and co-captain Zoe Miller said.
Many members practice during Academic Lab or after school, going over the choreography to make sure they know it.
“We just have to work hard and make good use of the time we have,” sophomore Allison Ludwinski said. “Some other guards will have multiple people for choreography and who have gyms specifically available to them, so we just have to work hard to make up for it.”
On Jan. 28, the team placed 7th out of 19 at a competition.
“We blocked everything out and did our best,” Lloyd said. “Our best got us a good score.”
Brandon Fink had experience previously on a winter guard team, as well as being a dance teacher for various styles of dance, and also has judged many winter guard performances.
“Brandon has been a wonderful teacher and patient with members such as myself that have had little to no experience with color guard before,” Jeremy Fink said.
Brandon Fink helped gain new members for the team, and increased everyone’s ability for dancing and spinning.
“Every coach is different, no matter what you are learning,” Lloyd said. “Our new coach wanted to learn our strengths and weaknesses and not judge us on our skills from before. He puts our individual skills into use.”
Over half of the winter guard team didn’t even touch a flag before preparation towards the pep rally and competition. Many people had to start at the basics.
“I believe that the new coach is exactly what our team needed,” Lloyd said. “He is an experienced dancer which greatly helps with our choreography. Not only has he been on a winter guard team, he has also judged many performances as well.”
