A Golden Performance for Winter Guard as Winter Winds Prepares to Compete

~ This week’s blog was again written by senior Winter Guard section leader, Katy Gilbert ~

Saturday, February 3rd marked the second week of competition for the Woodlan Winter Guard, and it did NOT disappoint! The guard has been hard at work since the competition at Snider to clean their routine, finish up the new rifle routine, and add in the new swing flag line! Unfortunately, the guard was down a member due to a nasty concussion, but they would not let anything stand in their way of working for their gold! Read on to hear about the guard’s accomplishments at Anderson High School!

This past Saturday, the guard competed at Anderson High School’s Festival of Colors competition. It was an early morning for everyone, arriving at Woodlan at 7 AM. They were met with donuts and juice to give them energy for the day ahead. The guard and directors did some last-minute packing of equipment and loading of the tarp into Jennifer Spencer's car. The guard loaded the bus and traveled an hour and a half to Anderson High School.

When the guard arrived at Anderson, they were quickly ushered to their designated “hallway square” and were sent to go help unload the tarp. Luckily, the guard wasn’t in as much of a rush to get ready this time, so they had more time to perfect makeup and hairstyles. Everyone was filled with nerves and excitement as the time drew closer for the guard to transit to inspection and then to warm-ups. The guard had one goal in mind: to earn a gold rating, which they would need a score of 53 to achieve. After around 30 minutes of transits, inspections, and warm-ups, the Woodlan Winter Guard took the floor for performance at 11:49 AM. The Woodlan Winter Guard once again amazed the crowd with a beautifully performed show! The guard proved how far they can come after just one week of hard work and dedication! Unfortunately, Paige Mason wasn’t able to perform because she is recovering from a guard-related concussion, but she was still there to cheer on her team members and help in any way that she could. After Bayli Winfrey wrapped up the show with a mini-solo, the guard handed off their equipment to Izzy Lothamer and Miles Walton and folded their tarp. (Which, fortunately, went MUCH more smoothly than last time!)

The majority of the guard members were able to change out of their uniforms and load all of their belongings on the bus. After eating a quick lunch, they went off to watch and cheer for the Cadet and Regional A winter guards. Awards quickly rolled around at 2:16 PM. Woodlan sent up three award representatives: Kiera Caston, Paige Mason, and Myra Ryckman. The rest of the guard and the directors sat in the bleachers anxiously, waiting to hear how Woodlan had scored. After hearing the ratings of seven other guards, it was finally Woodlan’s turn. Everyone sat tensely for a few brief seconds before the news finally came. “Woodlan….GOLD!” The crowd and the guard erupted into cheers and applause. This is the guard’s first gold rating since their 2020 show “Tattooed Heart.” For all but two of the performers, this was the first gold that they had ever earned! The excitement was understandable. The guard’s final score was 56.4 points, nearly 10 points higher than their last competition! Woodlan left Anderson High School knowing that all of their hard work was worth it!

Here are the results for the Festival Class at the Anderson Competition:

New Haven (Silver), Anderson JV (Gold), Hagerstown (Gold), Speedway (Silver), Heritage (Silver), Greenfield-Central Cougerettes (Bronze), Snider JV (Silver), Woodlan (Gold), IPS-All City Guard (Bronze), Huntington North (Gold), McCutcheon (Silver), and Fairfield JV (Gold)

It was a very successful week for the Winter Guard members, who are being treated to popsicles and a pizza party! Now that the guard has brought home the gold, don’t expect to see them taking any time off! They have three weeks that they will be using to finish the remainder of their show and perfect all of their routine. Congratulations to the Woodlan Winter Guard on their gold rating! You have made the Woodlan community very proud! I don’t know about everyone else, but I think that “Gold-rated Guard” has a nice ring to it.😉

The guard will next be performing on February 24th at Carroll High School. It is their last local competition, so it will be a perfect time to come and cheer on this hard-working group of kids!

Meanwhile, our other group of hard-working students, Woodlan’s Winter Winds, have been preparing their show for their first competition this upcoming Saturday, February 10th. Winter Winds will be heading to Noblesville High School this Saturday to compete in Indiana Percussion Association’s Winter Winds Division. They were originally scheduled to compete at Franklin Central High School, but found out this week that the Winds Division was moved to Noblesville High School instead. They have been working hard on their New Orleans themed show and are enjoying all the upbeat jazz tunes that they have ready to share with the judges. Woodlan Winter Winds will start off the competition by performing first in the Winds Scholastic A Class at 2:00pm. Their competition includes groups from much larger schools, including Washington, Ben Davis, Warren Central, Kokomo, Clay City, Yorktown, and Lake Central. Awards will be held at 4:05pm. We hope you can join us at Noblesville to cheer on this awesome group of musicians!