What’s Winter Guard? Is It Worth It?

Winter guard is the indoor color guard sport and performance art that takes place throughout the winter. In winter guard, various equipment such as flags and rifles are used to create a performance. Since this winter guard team is combined between both Waukee and Northwest, the number of participants is much greater than during the fall season.

Junior Ariel Martol will be in her second year of winter guard this upcoming season. She encourages participating in the sport for many reasons. To her, winter guard is “the time where color guard truly get to show off all of their skills.” For color guard captain James Bohenkamp, winter guard is “just another way to do something I love… Performance is so fun to me, and being able to dance and spin with my friends is such a great feeling,” he said.

Both Martol and Bohenkamp strongly encourage participating in this activity or at least trying it out. “People should do winter guard because it is a unique experience. From joining winter guard, you can gain a bunch of new and cool skills by learning how to toss and spin equipment,” Martol claimed. “I joined winter guard in 10th grade, and I don’t regret it one bit. At first, it was hard learning how to toss and spin flag, but by the end of the season I wanted to do it all over again.” Bohenkamp similarly stated that there is much to gain from Winter Guard. “Winter Guard is a great way to meet people because the community is so friendly and welcoming. It is also such a great way to break out of your comfort zone because there isn’t much else like it. It is a challenging sport, but it pays off because you learn how to work hard, how to challenge yourself, and how to be part of a team.”

Hannah Emmert, one of the coaches for Waukee combined winter guard, has had many experiences with guard and had much to gain from it. “You can build relationships here in winter guard, meet people that you don’t normally meet, but you also get to work on skills with body quality and performance quality,” Emmert stated how some things learned in winter guard carried throughout her life. “There are things that I learned when I was in color guard growing up that I still use to this day in my adult life.” Like many others, Emmert doesn’t regret sticking with guard at all. “The relationships you build are so strong that you feel like a family by the time the season’s done because you’ve been through everything together.”

If you are interested in trying winter guard out, there are experience/trial camps throughout the next week or so to try it out before committing to the season. More details can be found on the flyers around the school. If there are any questions, you can reach out to coaches Audrey Chambers (chambersaudrey21@gmail.com) and Hannah Emmert (hemmert@waukeeschools.org).