NHS Hosts First Color Guard Competition Of Season

On Saturday night, January 29, the Newtown High School Winter Guard and the NHS Band and Color Guard Parents hosted the Third Annual Winter Guard Festival at Newtown High School. The Festival is a competition among color guard groups from schools and organizations in Connecticut and neighboring states.

Each group performs a sometimes rigorous, sometimes graceful, five- to eight-minute program that is a combination of choreography and flag, rifle and/or saber drills, all set to recorded music. The music, costumed performers, backdrops and other props set the theme for each performance.

Professional adjudicators assess several critical categories of each group’s performance, including visual effect and precision.

Newtown’s show was the first of the season to be held in Connecticut and included performances by 20 groups representing 14 schools.

It also marked the initial performance of two new groups from Newtown in addition to the “A” guard that has performed in previous years. The Newtown “Cadet” guard, comprised of Middle School students, performed to “Mambo #5” by Lou Bega. The “B” guard performed to music from Austin Powers, while the “A” guard performed to Chuck Mangione’s “Land of Make Believe.”

Newtown, as host, performed in exhibition only. The results from the show were based on a 0-100 point scale.

World Class: First place, Norwalk High School (85.4); Second place, Ramsay High School, New Jersey (82.6); Third place, Masuk High School, (80.3)

 Open Class: First place, Naugatuck High School; Second place, Brien McMahon High School; Third place, Brookfield High School.

Class A: First place, Danbury High School (71.8); Second place, Persuasion, Fairlawn, New Jersey (71.3); Third place, Elmwood Park High School, New Jersey (69.3); Fourth place, Bethel High School (69.1); Fifth place, Shelton High School (65.0); Sixth place, Norwalk High School (60.6), Seventh place, Masuk High School (59.3); Eighth place, Brookfield High School (57.4).

Class B: First place, Johnathan Law High School (56.5).

Class C: First place, Bethel High School (49.3).

Cadet Class: First place, Persuasion Cadets, Fairlawn, NJ.

The season continues for the Newtown guard groups with competitions to be held at Bethel HS on February 2, Brookfield on February 12, Masuk on February 20, Danbury on February 26, Jonathan Law on March 4, Shelton on March 11, Fairlawn, NJ on March 25, Norwalk on April 1 and Trumbull on April 8.

Newtown was purchased from the Indians in 1705, settled in 1708, incorporated as a town in 1711, and as a borough in 1824.