Winter Guard placed third in their last competition of the year.

“We ended up placing in third, getting the highest score of our school’s history,” said junior Quinna Sheets. “It was a great opportunity to go to this competition, to have a new experience with the guard and place as highly as we did. It has made me more motivated to see where we can take our program here at North.” 

Aside from competitions, the members enjoy everything about Winter Guard.

“Winter Guard is just so much fun. So we have different kinds of equipment that we use, like we have flags, we have rifles, and we have sabers, and so we learn some choreography to a song, and then we go to competitions and we compete with that,” said freshman Bailey MacLennan.

“It’s kind of like marching band where we do more and more each showcase. So whenever we learn more stuff, then we will perform it,” MacLennan said. 

Like other sports, Winter Guard regularly competes with nearby schools. Winter Guard member, Kyra Bush, goes into depth about said competitions.

“We have competed at other high schools in our area such as Naperville North High School and Schaumburg High School,” said sophomore Kyra Bush.

“Most organizations that host competitions are larger schools and therefore usually have larger Winter Guards due to funding,” Bush said.

The Winter Guard continuously works hard for all of their upcoming performances. The tricks and techniques they use have prove to be very difficult. Winter Guard member, junior Quinna Sheets, talks about the difficulty of these skills and techniques.

 “It’s definitely very hard. It is very much a learned skill. The problem is that it doesn’t come naturally. You can probably deal with a flag pretty easily, but other equipment such as the rifle or saber takes a lot more practice and a little bit more gut because you have to get used to this and you have to keep trying and failing over and over again until you actually get where you need to be,” Sheets said.

“I would say my favorite is the rifle, but it’s also incredibly difficult to get a lot of the movements down. The flag is much more stable, whereas the rifle is harder. And if you miss one thing, everything hurts,” Sheets said.

Students involved really enjoy all their competitions and are excited for next year’s competitions.