Winter guard members walked together down the hallway of the school toward the PE Gym, laughing and talking with each other about their days. They filed into the gym and set their flag bags together in an organized row near the door. Not much later, another girl came in, pulling a cart behind her. Familiar with the drill, students gathered around it and pulled off the large tarp which had rested on it.
“1, 2, 3, pull!” Guard Captain Claire Gornall called out loudly and her voice echoed off the walls.
After putting out two tarps, one on top of the other, to cover the gym floor, they took another moment to talk before beginning their warmup routine.
“Spread out, you know the drill!” One of the Winterguard directors, Mr. Wes Tyree, shouted.
The 13 team members spread out across the tarp and began to stretch. Pop music blared loudly through the speaker as Mr. Wes directed the guard through 40 minutes of stretches and warmup exercises timed to the beat of each song.
Mr. Wes switched the music off, signaling the end of their warm up.
“Grab a quick drink and we’re going to start from the end of the flag feature,” Mr. Wes said to the group.
The students went to the door and picked up their flag bags, pulling out the contents and setting them in the designated spots on the edge of the tarp. They kept their flags with them as they headed back to their places on the tarp. They began going through the counts and were given instructions by each of the directors before going through it a few more times with the group.
“Help each other out,” Mr. Tyree called, giving the guard members some time to work on the moves on their own.
The guard split into two groups, each working on their different choreography for the show. Winter guard tech Andre Almendariz worked with the members with blue flags and Mr. Tyree and Mr. Jailin Samuels worked with the members that held orange and yellow flags.
“You got it, homegirl,” Almendariz said, encouraging his group as they worked on a challenging move.
The guard continued to exercise the most difficult parts of their routine. Rehearsal was concluded with a complete run through of the show.
