Competition Is Spirited At Winter Guard Festival

By Tanjua Damon

The twirling vibrant flags brought a breeze to the Newtown High School gymnasium as 12 Winter Guard squads performed for a crowd of over 400 Saturday night.

Newtown varsity and junior varsity color guards hosted the fourth annual Winter Guard Festival, where color guards from the tri-state area performed a five-to-eight-minute routine and were judged on their performance, including visual effect and precision. Annually, the performance is a combination of choreography and flag, rifle, and/or saber drills performed to recorded music. Costumes, and backdrops and other props set the theme for each routine.

This was the opening competition for many of the color guards present on Saturday night. The groups will perform until April with the championship competition to be held on April 21 in Trumbull.

Since Newtown was the host for the competition, the Newtown color guard was judged but ineligible to win. There are five divisions – Bronze, Silver, Gold, Open, and World – in which the color guards can compete. Only four classes were present at the Newtown Winter Guard Festival this year.

East Side High Junior Varsity from Newark, N.J., won the silver class. If competing Newtown High School Junior Varsity would have been judged in this category.

East Side High Varsity won in the Gold Division. Newtown High School Varsity would have been judged in this division.

Open Class winners were Naugatuck High School and World Class winners were Norwalk High School.

The Newtown High School varsity guard is under the direction of Kristen Andersen, Bob Findley, and Katie Hughes. The group of 14 girls performed to “Art After Dark,” wearing black costumes with black and white props.

“Everything was great,” Kristen Andersen, NHS varsity coach, said. “It was a good turnout. Everyone had a good show. There is a lot of support from the parents and community.”

Since this was their first competition for the winter season, many of the participating color guards’ routines were not complete.

“It went okay for the first outing,” Bob Findley, NHS varsity coach, said. “Some things I was disappointed with, some things I was happy with. It’s just a matter of progressing from here.”

Kara Kunst, one of the varsity guard captains, felt the group’s first performance went well, but there were some things that still need to be ironed out.

“I think it went well for our first performance,” Kara said. “Our timing wasn’t together… But I think it went really well.”

The Newtown High School junior varsity guard performed to “Grease.” They are under the direction of Coaches Lisa Jensen, James Dumas, and Allyson Hopkins.

“They were incredible. There was so much energy coming off the floor,” junior varsity coach Lisa Jensen said. “We’ve been working so hard. When they got on the floor, the intensity was so great. They shocked me.”

There are 29 members on the junior varsity guard in grades 6 through 12. Many of the members had never competed before.

“I think it was absolutely wonderful,” Allyson Hopkins, junior varsity coach, said. “They had a blast. They are loving this.”

Aileen Kerns, one junior varsity captain, admitted she was a bit nervous before taking the gym floor to perform, but that did not stop the squad from providing an energetic routine for the audience.

“I was kind of shaking,” she said. “It went good.”

Vicky Cardoso, also a captain of the junior varsity guard, felt the entire group did well for their first performance of the season.

“I think we did really good for our first performance,” Vicky said. “For some of the girls, this was their first time.”

Captains of the Varsity guard include Becca Cain, Anna Crozby, Lesley Janutolo, and Kara Kunst. Members of the varsity guard are Katie Cyne, Heather Cummings, Courtney DiBeneditto, Lindsay Hirsch, Nicole Krause, Erica Locke, Heather Page, Rebecca Stephens, Amanda Tredger, and Kim Wise.

Junior varsity captains are Vicky Cardoso, Sarah DeVellis, Aileen Kerns, and Sara Robichaud. Members of the junior varsity guard include Jillian Blomberg, Katelyn Bolmer, Margret Donahue, Lauren Hebert, Melissa Heil, Ashley Hughes, Becky Huot, Lauren Imperioli, Jen Joy, Heather Knapik, Amanda Krause, Alicia Kulp, Danielle Lafrancesca, Jessica Macey, Katie Mauro, Heather McNally, Brittany Masotta, Elana Overland, Jessica Perez, Danielle Spencer, Allie Standish, Andrea Szabo, Stacie Tamaski, Karen Whippie, and Katelyn Wise.

Newtown High School has only had a winter guard program for four or five years, according to director James Dumas. This is only the second year that a junior varsity guard has performed.