Now that the marching season has come to an end, many members from the band find themselves with too much free time. Some fill that empty space with something that takes just as much dedication as band: winter guard. 

“Marching band was an amazing season, but I’m so excited to keep guard going and work even harder this winter season to put on a great show,” Faith Spratt, junior, said. 

Last year the Etowah A-Guard, the high school team, and the Cadets, the middle school team, qualified for a higher classification right before championships in Chattanooga. The two teams scored unusually high for their classification resulting in them moving up a class. The A-Guard now competes in Scholastic Reginal A (SRA), and the Cadets compete in the Cadet A classification. With the higher class comes harder work and more dedication to the sport and maturity to the performance. 

“Getting bumped last year means we will perform at a high level with more challenging competitors this season. The team will have higher expectation of themselves as performers, and we will practice harder for a more difficult show,” Olivia Berry, senior, said. 

While in past years only girls have tried out, this year a few boys are interested in joining the guard for the winter season. The inclusion of the boys allows better story telling in the show at competitions. 

“I have seen many of my friends enjoying [guard], and they’ve taught me a little already, so I thought I would try out,” Seth Tanner, senior, said. 

Tryouts were from Nov. 18 to Nov. 20. The list of the members that made the winter guard team were sent out over break via email. The team starts practicing in December and will begin competing in 2020. Etowah has hosted a competition for the past two years and is expected to hold the biggest competition this year in March. Be sure to come out and support the guards.