So far, the 2015 year has been a great year for winter guard. The squad placed second out of seven high schools in its first competition. Success continued into the next competition: they made finals in the Winter Guard International competition.

“We’ve never made finals at WGI competition before,” senior Kylie Stewart said. “This year we got 14th out of 30 high schools.”

International is the second highest rank out of the three ranks of winter guard competitions.

“We are competing against teams we never thought we could compete against,” senior Hannah Karbula said.

Guard members are sure that their success will continue into their next competitions.

“We’re working really hard and I think we’re going to be great,” senior Logan Grooms said.

It requires a lot of work to do as well as the winter guard has done this year. The team spends more than four hours learning their performances at practice.

“At our practices we go all out,” Karbula said. “It’s easy to do our practices in the gym with no audience. But in a stadium, there are a lot more nerves, so we practice as if we are in front of an audience at every practice.”

Right before their competitions squad members get their minds in the right place.

“We do a mental run,” Stewart said. “We play our music and perform inside our heads. Then we get in a circle, hold hands, and do a chant. It gets our energy going and gets rid of nerves.”