By Traci Chapman, Managing Editor
Piedmont winter guard teams hit the ground running, with three programs as different as the individuals performing them.
The district’s middle school guard is back this season for the first time since 2018, co-director Mikayla Byrne said Tuesday. This year’s program is entitled “Shark in the Water,” after the song of the same name performed by V.V. Brown.
That entry-level guard team is not ranked with a point system and judged in conjunction with other groups, as is the practice for junior varsity and varsity groups, but rather given a verbal rating that helps guide members as they immerse themselves in the program. Byrne and fellow co-director Christian Traylor work closely with younger guard members to ease them into the rigors of guard with a basic routine.
“The point of middle school guard is to introduce them to basic color guard techniques and procedures, so they learn what works, what doesn’t and what’s involved as they move into the higher levels,” Byrne said.
Piedmont’s JV team was a crowd favorite during the second contest of the year – and the first performed competitively in front of a live audience. While the first scheduled tournament was a Winter Guard and Percussion of Oklahoma event set at Yukon High School, it was canceled due to inclement weather earlier that week, with teams able to elect to submit a virtual routine.
Clear skies bode well for last weekend’s event, held at Choctaw High School and featuring a heavy slate of winter guard entries, and JV winter guard members brought up the energy with their program, “I Wanna Dance.” In Choctaw, Piedmont junior varsity came in 7th, with a score of 62.070, while the varsity team took third place in its Scholastic B division.
The district’s varsity team presented something altogether different – “Rising Phoenix,” which features music from League of Legends. The program’s striking costumes and innovative choreography also inspired the crowd at Choctaw; varsity’s score was 59.080.
Piedmont – like other guard programs – has faced challenges due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Last year’s JV show was particularly impacted, but the number of students participating in winter guard has rebounded, Byrne said, with 36 members spread between the three teams.
Piedmont varsity winter guard members will experience a first in March, as they head to Winter Guard International regional competition in Tulsa March 5.
“We’re excited about that competition in particular because we’ve never done that before,” Byrne said.
All three teams will head to Southmoore for a March 19 WGPO contest and to Jenks High School for the state guard championship, scheduled for April 2.
After winter guard winds down, Byrne and Traylor will prepare for the 2022 marching band season, with color guard tryouts set in May; band camp usually begins in earnest over summer break.
“We usually have our tryouts for next year the week after school ends and then keep going as we prepare for color guard, which begins in the summer and runs through the fall semester,” Byrne said.
