At Bonita Vista High (BVH), Color Guard changes with the seasons as members brush off the spring pollen and fall leaves to instead embrace the chill that follows their upcoming 2022-23 Winter Guard season.

Color Guard is most often seen practicing outside the band room at BVH. The Winter Guard team is generally termed Color Guard during the spring and the fall seasons. The winter season gives members the opportunity to express themselves more as performers as they focus on technique, dance and equipment elements that aren’t utilized by Color Guard during the field season.

“Winter Guard is an awesome opportunity [for students] to express [themselves] more from a performer’s standpoint,” BVH’s band director Mark McCann said. “It also means the judges are closer to the Guard members so a lot of the performance element from an emotional perspective is in play as well.”

Similarly, Color Guard communications ambassador and junior Kaleigh Isla-Allen defines the Winter Guard season as a more technically focused season for the team. She states that along with the harder technical aspects of the season, they feel more pressure to do well. During the field season, Color Guard is usually accompanied by BVH’s band Club Blue and they often work together for their performances. During Winter Guard, McCann’s attention is focused solely on Color Guard.

“Winter Guard is the guard performing. We will have our own shows inside the gym and it’s a whole new concept [with] a lot harder skills,” Isla-Allen said. “It’s easier because it’s indoors,but be hard because if you mess up in winter guard,it’s more obvious. When you drop [the equipment] it makes a loud noise, so you really have to push and put your effort into Winter Guard.”

As Color Guard gets back-to-back competitions the whole year, McCann emphasizes the fact that team building is essential to having a successful season. It is crucial for the team to stay on the same wavelength.

“They basically have two separate sports they do back to back. Luckily, it’s similar in what’s expected from a technique standpoint,” McCann said. “Right now we are in a state where we want to develop a team and focus on the teamwork element of what we’re doing.”

Color Guard members have a similar mindset as their director, regardless of their competitive spirit. Color Guard captain and senior Jayden Zwolinski explains his responsibilities in the team as of this year. As Color Guard captain, Zwolinski makes sure everyone understands the choreography, keeps track of everything and is the perfect role model for them.

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“We try to have a lot of team bonding during our free time though it is limited. We try to make it as much of a family as we can whenever we have down time and make sure we all have a personal connection with each other,” Zwolinski said.

Additionally, publicity is an important factor for the team. Color Guard leaders try to spread word of their performances so that more people attend and appreciate the hard work they put in behind the scenes.

“I’m in charge of the Instagram account and in charge of making sure that our school is able to see what we are on campus since we’re not that shown. My role is to try to get more exposure out there on who we are,” Isla-Allen said.

McCann explains what his future plans are for the team design and choreography. The season is still in the works and McCann explains how the team is handling all this new choreography.

“Every year we’re trying to do something new, exciting and different. Some years you do things that you’ve done before, but with a new flare. There’s a bunch of different ways to look at it, but at the end of the day we don’t have our design completed just yet,” McCann said. “A lot of it starts to come down to when we start learning it, what are the kids capable of?”

As of late, team members have continued to practice so they can put forth their best performance and techniques in future competitions. Both Zwolinski and Isa-Allen express their aspirations for the team this season as their first competition is in late January.

“I want everyone to have a great experience and try their best to make it the best they feel they can make it. Hopefully, we make championships this year and place high like we did last year,” Zwolinski said.

Isa-Allen explains some of the new challenges that have come up this year such as less returners and more new faces. She understands that there must be work to be done so new members focus on improving and know how much hard work they must put into Winter Guard.

“There’s only seven Winter Guard returners and only five guard returners. Team building is growing a lot more this season, but it’s definitely harder because they’re all new and they are all different in their own ways, so it’s a little harder to do the team building and for them to get used to how serious this is,” Isa-Allen said. “They’re having fun, but we need to work on team building.”

While it might not be competition season for Winter Guard until the second semester, Color Guard continues to exhibit their growth through performances around the community joined with Club Blue. For example, Guard had a couple competitions around San Diego, including traveling to Westview High and Mira Mesa High.

Moreover, he says that though the future is uncertain, the team is looking forward to this season. Zwolinski continues to collaborate with his peers, coaches and Club Blue on choreography.

“I’m really excited for the choreography. Our coaches are ever so slightly giving us teasers as to what it could be. They say they have music, but we’re not even sure what it is yet,” Zwolinski said.

As the new season gets closer, Color Guard prepares themselves for new challenges and elements. The future looks promising for Winter Guard as the team continuously exhibits their skills and team work year round, eagerly waiting for an upcoming season of technically focused competition.

“We obviously want them to perform well. We want them to be able to perform at the highest degree possible, but that performance element is going to be how we get there.,” McCann said. “Remember that with all things that are worthwhile, effort and difficulty are required. No matter what, at the end of the day, remember that we are creating art with the people we love.”