A flag is tossed into the air. The colorful silk ripples, beautiful patterns fly. Spinning, fluid movements.

The winter guard performed their show, “Where the Heart is” on Jan. 19 at their competition, and received second place in their class – showing great promise for the rest of their season.

“This year’s show is about how your home is where you make it,” new winter guard member Rachel Stepp said. “It’s where your heart is, it not where you just go to sleep. Home is where your people are, where you are with everybody.”

This year, the winter and color guard received a new coach, Cody Newill.

“Our new director, Mr. Newill, is very upbeat,” winter guard captain Lois Robertson said. “He has put a ton of effort into our program and performers since he started working with us this last marching season.”

Bringing a fresh face into the program can bring new life to it.

“It’s very refreshing,” Newill said. “Argyle has a strong community that supports the program in a number of ways. I’m very happy to see the amount of parents putting a hand in helping with the performers needs.”

Although the winter guard is small, a consequence from not having a team last year, they gained three new members bringing the team number up to eleven.

“All of the members definitely get along easily,” Robertson said. “In the past, I’ve spun with girls that get on each other’s nerves and fight easily, but this guard is very easy going and crazy hilarious.”

Winter guard takes a great deal of focus and concentration being a combination of multiple skills, including dance, body awareness, and flag work.

“It’s really different and chaotic,” Stepp said. “While most sports have you practicing together, he [Newill] will work with a small section and you’ll have to practice on your own. Then he’ll come over to you and ask what you did right and what you did wrong so you know what you need to work on.”

Winter guard is not only a competitive extracurricular, but also a way for the team to earn more members for the color guard next fall.

“I think the winter guard will affect [next marching season] really well,” Stepp said. “There will be more people that could possibly join the color guard, and even though there are only three new people, I think it will definitely benefit us.”

With the winter guard being small in number, they have to be very flexible on where they practice, sometimes having to “fight” for a gym to practice in.

“Winter guard is a lot harder than it sounds,” Stepp said.  “Everywhere you see the guard working and you think ‘oh that’s not hard’, but in reality when you step out there, you have so much fun but it’s very challenging. There’s definitely bruises and pain.”

Winter guard gives many the opportunity to come out of their comfort zone.

“A problem I have is the constant smiling,” Stepp said. “Unlike marching band where you have your shako [hat] on and you don’t have to smile, in guard you have to constantly smile and look up. You can’t watch yourself, you can’t see where you’re going, or watch your hands.”

At competitions, the team gets seven minutes of body warm-up for stretching and then seven minutes for a flag warm up before performing.

“We compete at 3 local contests to qualify for the NTCA championships,” Newill said. “There are a number of different competitive levels as well, not sorted by school size but rather the performers’ skill level.”

Although winter guard comes with challenges, it can also be a very rewarding experience, allowing students to come out with many newfound skills.

“I do guard because I absolutely love the performance aspect that it comes with,” Robertson said. “Just like theater or dance, in color guard, you have the opportunity to become someone or something new and tell your own story.”

As with any performance, a deep connection is formed between the performers after the hours of hard work.

“When it comes to emotional support and saying ‘hey you got this, you’ll be fine’, they [the team members] are definitely there to support you,” Stepp said. “It’s like a good 11 people family.”

The winter guard hopes to achieve success at there next competition on Feb. 1 and make their way to the Winter Guard Championships.

“I’m really confident in our show this season,” Robertson said. “I’m certainly more focused on the memories and having fun than winning awards, but I do think our show will stack up really well in our division.”