Winter Guard Has Their Best Performance Yet and A Double Performance Ahead For Winds

This week, the incredible Katy Gilbert had mercy on my soul and offered to help write the blog, as she is way more knowledgeable on all things Guard-related than I am. Her sister, Alivia, is a current member of Winter Guard, and Katy had a break in show-choir this past weekend and was able to help with their pit crew. She has agreed to help write the blog for State Finals as well! 😊 I have also included some notes from Jennifer Spencer throughout...

After 2 weeks off from competition and many, many changes to the show, the winter guard headed to Carroll High School this past weekend for the last competition before finals! The guard used the 2 weeks they had off of competitions and dug deep to pull out all the stops. They added some more props and added injured members back into the show only to then have to revamp everything to take one back out. They also added double time to the show which was new to almost all the members. Needless to say nerves were everywhere. They all stuck to it, however, and in the end, it paid off.

For the past two weeks, the Woodlan Winter Guard has been hard at work reworking and revising their show! Having 2 kids injured most certainly did not make that an easy task. After two weeks of hard work, dedication, and an almost complete revision of the show, the guard was ready to take the floor for competition once more.

This was at one of our practices where everyone was just over it.

This past Saturday, February 25th, the guard competed at Carroll High School. After arriving at Woodlan at 7:30am, the kids were given a nutritious breakfast of doughnuts, provided by Nicole Osborn. The kids then did some last-minute cleaning of their swing flag routine before packing up and heading off to Carroll High School.

After arriving, the kids unloaded the bus and scrubbed up for their show. This weekend, the performers added face masks and stethoscopes to their nursing uniforms. The guard quickly ran through warm-ups, met up with the pit crew (made up of Gayleen Fogle, Katy Gilbert, Justina Reinders, and Charley Reinders), and then made their way to the gym floor. At 11:03 AM the Woodlan Winter Guard took the performance floor and wowed the audience with their best performance of the season.

There was a large gap between Woodlan’s performance and awards, so the guard members had some time to relax before the awards finally rolled around. Woodlan Winter Guard brought home another silver award, but that isn’t even the most impressive part. The guard managed to jump 16 points from their last performance (in the band and guard world that is a huge difference) and fell only 1.45 points short of a Gold rating. We are so proud of that huge accomplishment!

Here are the results from the Carroll Competition for Festival Class:

New Haven (Silver), Warsaw (Gold), Goshen JV (Gold), Fairfield JV (Gold), Bishop Dwenger (Gold), Adams Central (Gold), Manchester (Gold), Huntington North (Gold), Mishawaka (Silver), Woodlan (Silver), Leo (Gold), Elkhart JV (Gold), Maconaquah (Gold), and Concord JV (Gold)

The guard will next be performing at the IHSCGA State Finals on March 11th at Decatur Central High School in Indianapolis. The Festival Class will begin at 1:00pm with New Castle JV. Woodlan Winter Guard will perform at 1:35pm. Awards will be held with a full retreat at 3:20pm. The kids and staff will be using the next two weeks to make sure that Woodlan finishes the season as a Gold Rated Guard!

Meanwhile, Winter Winds had last weekend off from competition. They have been hard at work this past week on the closer of the show and have lots of exciting updates to debut this weekend. Winter Winds usually competes in the Indiana Percussion Association circuit, but they will be competing this weekend at the Winter Guard International (WGI) Regional Event at Greenfield Central High School in Greenfield, Indiana. Winter Percussion competed in WGI's Virtual Season in 2021, but this weekend will be the first time Woodlan competes in WGI in person. It will be quite the long day, with Woodlan Winds performing at the Prelims Event at 12:45pm. They will later perform in the Finals Event at 6:45pm. Awards will be held after the last group performs at 8:27pm. The cost to attend these performances is as follows: Prelims - $12, Finals - $15, or you can purchase a combo ticket for $22. We hope you'll come out to support these students, who are ready to show you their complete show this weekend! Hope to see you there!