At the Winter Guard International awards ceremony for winter guard students at Ayala High school, students fell silent when announcements began. Teams held their breath, waiting to hear their school’s name. When finally announced as the second-place winner, the Walnut team cheered together for their victory.
On March 29, Walnut High competed against four different schools and placed second in the competition. There was only 0.14 points between Walnut and Ayala, who got first place. The show that Walnut produced this year was based on the Mona Lisa, with the performers presenting their routine inside a large picture frame. With more new members this year joining the team, the show is more inclusive, making it larger and harder to carry out. The team had to handle the saber as part of their equipment, which added difficulty to their routine.
Dance line and flag line member sophomore Rae Santos is looking forward to future competitions. She joined Winter Guard to contribute more to the school, and the recent victory was an opportunity to prove her success.
“Most of our expectations are really just to do well and to perform a lot, so we could get higher [placements]. So [when we won second place], we were really happy and felt very celebratory. We were just really emotional too, since it was our second to last competition,” Santos said.
Junior Joyce Ma is on the flag line and, as an upperclassman, is also responsible for teaching new members. After celebrating with the group over their achievement, she turns her attention to the upcoming tournament against Arcadia High School. The team is already on its way preparing for the final large competition, sharpening skills and working together for a harmonized performance.
“[Arcadia’s Winter] Guard has a very high [world level]. All we want to do is show [our] best. It was very, very close. The only place we feel like [we need to work on] is the equipment. Maybe we need to catch harder, or [practice] performing more of that,” Ma said.
Flag line participant sophomore Ewin Chen congratulates her team on their triumph. During performance day, she and her peers practiced their routine for nearly two hours, and competed right after lunch. The practice paid off with their final score revealed during the awards.
“We’re trying our best and working hard for [competitions]. We did come out with a good score. It made me happy because we’re in a good spot right now. But since our competitors are also pretty good, we [are still] preparing,” Chen said.
The last major tournament of the year is the Winter Guard Association of Southern California (WGASC), a two-day competition held at UC Irvine. Teams that get into the top 14 on the first day can attend. This milestone marks a big goal for the Winter Guard team, and they aim to compete as far as they can.
“We are fighting for it right now. We have rehearsals every week, and also camp [during] spring break. So we need to do it again and again and again. [We need to] practice, practice, and practice so we can know what we need to do at the show,” Ma said. “I think we really need to count so we can know which part we need to do, and we can then synchronize better together.”
