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TOP STORY OF THE DAY: Northview Winter Guard heading to competition
When Addison Ehrlich was a member of the Northview Cadet Corps, she knew she wanted to be a part of the Winter Guard. And now as a senior, she is completing her fourth season. She and the rest of the Northview Winter Guard are leaving Wednesday for Dayton, Ohio to compete in the Winter Guard International competition.
“We held auditions in November. Our season ends this week with the competition in Dayton,” explained Ashley Gonzalez, Director of the Winter Guard.
After choosing the 17-member team, the team began practicing 20 to 30 hours a week and the team members take private lessons on Saturdays. The members are dedicated to the success of their team.
For Ehrlich, those practices and lessons allow her “time with friends and learning new skills.”
Gonzalez knows firsthand the importance of participating in guard. She, herself, participated in a guard team while she was in high school. She has been the Director of Northview Winter Guard for six years, but has been a part of a program for 20 years.
The program at Northview offers three groups. The Cadet Corps and Winter Guard have been established but for the first time, the school added an A Guard this year. Chris Sparks is Director of the A Guard and is also assisting with the Winter Guard.
“This was our first year and we made it to the semi-state where we competed against 35 teams,” Sparks said.
Now that the A Guard season is over, Sparks has been helping the Winter Guard gear up for their competition. Gonzalez and Sparks do the choreography for the team.
“We have a team of designers who design the floor, flags, costumes and choose the music,” Gonzalez said.
The team of designers are Jon Vanderkolff, Samia Vanderkolff and Ruth Ann Medworth. That team decided that this year the Winter Guard would perform to Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain, Dreams and Tusk.
The Winter Guard competes in different divisions; rifle, dance, sabre and flags.
As they head into the competition this week, the Northview Winter Guard is ranked 7th. There are 21 teams in the competition. For the Winter Guard they will face the preliminary round which leads to the semi-finals and hopefully, the finals.
The Northview Winter Guard is considered a part of the Scholastic World, which is the highest a guard can participate in in the nation.
According to the Winter Guard International website, the competition this week is the World Championship. The preliminaries begin on Thursday, April 13 and the final day of competition will be Saturday, April 15.
The Northview Knights have worked very hard to get to this competition. For senior Ehrlich, all of that hard work is about to come to fruition.
“Placing well is our goal. Everything we have been doing has been leading up to this week.”