The Winter Guard team placed third at State, which was held at La Porte High School in Indiana. The competition was a few days long because there were multiple rounds.

“The competition took place over two days, April 1 and 2. We performed on the first and got to watch other classes and guard teams perform on the second,” said Winter Guard member Melissa Olhausen.
The team practiced for many hours in order to make sure that the routine was flawless. Many practices were held in preparation for State. They use their previous competition notes to try and perfect their previous mistakes.

“In general, our team practiced twice a week to learn the show and clean or change any choreography. Specific to the Midwest Circuit competition, we used feedback from previous competitions to make adjustments to our show, as well as having a practice the night before and the morning of the competition to further prepare us,” Olhausen said.
Another part of being successful as a team is bonding together so the team works as one while competing. Practice helped the team build relationships with each other and bind as well as perfect the choreography.
“To prepare, we practiced a lot, bonded as a team, and took critiques from other competitions to help us better our routine,” said team captain Symantha Kehr.

Due to all of their practices and bonding, the team placed in the top five at State.
“Our Winter Guard team got third place in round 1 (of 2 rounds) for class SRA at the Midwest Championship Circuit this year,” Olhausen said.