Winter guard is starting off its competition season strong with dancers and greater unity within the team. This year, the team looks to have fun and build a stronger bond instead of simply performing together. Winter guard competed in the NCTA scholastic A group at Lamar High School and won first place on Saturday, Feb. 23.

“It felt so good to perform,” junior Sylvia Nalbandian said. “And to come in first place was great too.”

Color guard was excited to win first place because it was their first time competing at the NCTA competition. Their next event is on Friday, March 15. This competition will be hosted at home and the team is preparing to compete again.

“I practice every day, even when we don’t have practice I go outside my house and I just practice,” senior Esteban Pina said. “The fact that it’s so time-consuming made me fall in love with it.”

Dance director Curtis Green is a major part of each dancers’ inspiration to join the team and the reason why the dancers enjoy competing with other schools. Despite the work winter guard endures, everyone still loves to compete.

“It’s given me a way to compete and dance, without having that competitive feeling,” Nalbandian said. “It’s fun for me, I enjoy it.”

Being on a team can develop feelings of unity and create a bond as if the teammates are family. The dancers’ friendships are part of the main reason why they choose to stay on the team.

“I feel really good to be a part of something else, it feels like a family, and it’s something that I do for fun,” senior Zaira Beltran said. “Being on the team [gives] me time to spend time with the people that I love to be with and do something that I love to do.”

The team believes being disciplined is one trait every sports team needs in order to be successful; hard work and complete dedication is not only for one team member, but for all.

“Everyone there gets along, we got close, just by spinning flags,” Pina said “It’s kind of weird everyone fell in love with [winter guard]. You learn a lot from it; you have to learn discipline.”

Balancing work, school and being on winter guard may have its difficulties but the teammates have the same viewpoints when it comes to staying prepared. The chance to perform together exhilarates them and makes them feel the utmost joy.

“Going to shows and performing, it’s really fun and it’s become a part of me over the last four years,” Beltran said. “You can spend time with the people you love and actually grow together.”