Students participating in the Winter Guard at Bob Jones have been preparing for their first competition at Lawrence County High School since January 5th. Their show, entitled Balancing Act, goes through acts of balancing that is not limited physically, but mentally, and spiritually balanced as well. On Saturday, they performed at 6:15 and placed first out of five with a score of 56.75.

The Winter Guard, run by Brooke Howe, has been competitive in the Southeastern Color Guard Circuit (SCGC) and Winter Guard International (WGI) since the early 2000s.

Ambra Cave, a freshman in Winter Guard, said, “We were all kind of excited to perform but it was all really stressful. [Afterwards] I was a little mad because of the work I forgot because I was so nervous and I definitely thought we were not going to get first place.”

Lauren Davidson, a junior, stated: “It went pretty smoothly, we had timing issues and individual mistakes, but those will get better as we have more practices. If we continue to put in as much work as we have been, we will have fewer mistakes and timing errors. If we focus on the things we can improve we will hopefully continue placing in first or at least, in the top three.”

Practices consist of Mondays and Thursdays (4-6), and some Saturdays, which are from 8 am to 5 pm.

Jada Washington, a junior, commented that “It’s non-stop work. It’s tiring and hard. Our instructor pushes us because she knows we can do it. Sometimes they are laid-back practices, and sometimes they aren’t. Overall they are just intense and you feel like you’re practicing 24/7, but they pay off. And it’s all worth it in the end.”

When asked about her performance Jada stated, “Our first performance was great! We went to field day, and that’s when now one has their full show, and we put on everything we had. I was very stressed because I was afraid I was going to drop a piece of equipment. But, we got 1st place out of 5 in all, and we were a lot cleaner than we expected to be.”

In 2 weeks the Guard will travel to Knoxville, Tennessee, where they will compete against other local and regional high schools.