As Celine Dion’s version of the song “Hymne à l’amour” plays in the background, Winter Guard begins their performance on a dark floor, wearing a dark floral dress with flowy white ends and gold hairpieces, using gold and purple flags along with prop weapons and gold props to represent the Mona Lisa’s golden frame. Little did they know that their performance would make history for Walnut High School.
Winter Guard competed for the first time in WGI regionals, which was hosted at Del Norte High School in San Diego, Calif. on Saturday, Feb. 21. Fifty groups from around the country in the Scholastic A Division competed at the WGI. Besides competing in regionals as a team from Scholastic AA division, Winter Guard also became the WGI finalist for the first time in Walnut history, earning them a trophy, on Sunday, Feb. 22. With a final score of 72.08, they placed 13th out of the 21 groups. Although Winter Guard will continue competing in the Scholastic AA division, a lower division than Scholastic A, the team was proud of their results.
“I was really happy [and] I was so grateful because I never thought we would make it this far,” captain senior Jasmine Ting said. “I can definitely tell that my team is going to do a lot [of] bigger things in the future.”
For both regionals and finals, Winter Guard performed their show called “Mon Amour,” inspired by the Mona Lisa painting. The team wanted to express what beauty means through elegance and mystery to match the Mona Lisa’s demeanor. During the performance, Mona Lisa would walk out of the golden frames as an invitation for the audience to be in the painting.
“I really like the theme because it’s pretty unique,” sophomore Kaitlyn Wong said. “I like that it’s special to us and it’s not a show you can see every year at any competition. I think having spent so much blood, sweat and tears plus working with all my teammates made me feel connected to our show.”
Throughout the trip, Winter Guard experienced fun activities like going to an arcade or hanging out as a team in their hotel room. Besides team bonding, another highlight of the trip was seeing coach Cameron Hudson perform at regionals in the independent division, a higher division only for adults. Hudson hopes that his performance inspired the team to embrace their passion for the arts.
“[Winter Guard] was my motivation. I did the performance as best as I could for them,” Hudson said. “From my performance, the advice I give to the Winter Guard is to really enjoy the moment of performing. Performing is such a fun and sacred opportunity to be able to perform for people. So [the team] should really feel proud of themselves and they should live in the moment every time that they step on that floor.”
To prepare for the competition, Winter Guard practiced two times a week for about four hours a day during the past three months to build consistency. Besides training with flags and prop equipment, the team motivated each other with chants and positive affirmation. The team also did different good luck traditions before performing such as using a good luck perfume and shouting “suck now so you don’t suck later” in a circle while holding hands after eating a tic tac.
“Our motivation was definitely something that came from the fact that we wanted our efforts not to go to waste. Another thing motivating us was each other because of how much we wanted [to] prove we are meant to be there. I think overall we all motivated [each other] by having the goal to succeed,” Ting said.
The San Diego trip was an opportunity for Winter Guard to bond and experience something new. They also took pride in their performance and have hope for upcoming shows at Baldwin Park High School on March 21.
“It is only my second year [at Walnut] as the coach, so having this achievement is already huge early on in the program’s career,” coach Nikolas Matsamura said. “We’re looking in the next two years to hopefully go to nationals and make it a week-long World Championship trip. That’s our future.”
