Last weekend on Jan. 25th., the JV Winter Guard attended their first competition at Texas Color Guard Circuit (TCGC) Dripping Springs and placed 3rd in the Scholastic JV Regional A class out of 8 teams. This is the JV’s first competition in two years after the Color Guard program switched to having one joint Varsity Color Guard who competed in the Scholastic National A class.
The JV team has been rehearsing their show Birds of a Feather bi-weekly since last December preparing to perform it in TCGC and Winter Guard International (WGI) competitions. The show’s soundtrack consists of Air Waltz by Oliver Davis and I’m Like a Bird by Nelly Furtado accompanied by sounds of birds and nature in order to create an experience that represents a flock of birds. The costumes for the show are the same costumes that were used in the Warrior Band’s 2023 production Birds on a Wire, which inspired the theme of this show.
“I think our show is very unique because of the bird theme,” V Carmona ‘28 said. “It feels very upbeat and pretty, and the choreo works well with the theme.”
The show starts off with an ensemble dance surrounding rifle soloist Selene Johnson ‘28, before spreading out into a division of a rifle and flag line performing choreo that compliments both the music and other performers. While the show is not currently finished, the team has learned their partner feature as well as their flag feature, which they showcased at TCGC Dripping Springs.
“I really love our flag feature because it’s really fun to perform it.” Basil Brenneman ‘28 said. “We are all super in time during that part but I think I need to improve my performance to the crowd during it.”
Having been most JV members’ first season of Winter Guard, members got to experience competition procedures and customs for the first time such as warm-ups, a vertical schedule, and moving the tarp through the competition. The team performed their show at 3:44 PM and spent the rest of the day watching other Winter Guards.
“The run felt pretty good to me being our first competition and the practice we’ve had so far,” Carmona said. “I think I did my best, but I could work on rifle [choreography] a bit more.”
While the JV team successfully brought home a trophy for their first competition, they still have more of their show to learn and master for their next competition.
“I’m proud to have placed third, especially considering we had several people who had never done colorguard before,” JV Captain Michael Flagg ‘28 said. “I think we all did amazing, and we worked really hard for the placement we earned, but there’s always things we could improve on.”
The JV Winter Guard will compete next at TCGC Akins on Feb. 1st.
