By Desiree Leong, Managing Editor

A shorter show.

Indoors.

Performing without the band.

The transition from fall to winter is what happens every year after Thanksgiving break for Kennedy’s award-winning color guard. Following their last competition with the band, Kennedy’s guard now has a shorter show compared to the normal eight to ten-minute performance. This season, there is no longer A Guard and B Guard, having combined the two into just the scholastic-ranked former. With this, Kennedy will only have one team performing in competitions.

(Left to Right) Grace Yang (Class of 2019), Logan Tuazon (c/o 2019), Cindy Leung (c/o 2019), Calyn Mims-Wesley (c/o 2020), and Lisa Kim (c/o 2019) synchronize during color guard practice. Photos by Sid Slesicki, Clarion Staff

The captains this season are Cindy Leung and Lisa Kim (Class of 2019). With a total of 17 members, 12 are returning and five are new.

In explaining the change, Cindy Leung mused, “I believe that it’s because of how this year’s show is going to be. From what is currently given to us, our show seems to be pretty empowering to us as high school students. I still remember the first time we heard our show, the instructors said to us, ‘This is a show for you guys.’”

Calyn Mims-Wesley (c/o 2020) and Cindy Leung (c/0 2019) synchronize sabers in their color guard run-through.

The song for the performance is an edit of Oprah’s “Destiny” speech and “To Build a Home” by The Cinematic Orchestra. Returning member Samantha Ng (c/o 2019) said, “I think it’ll be interesting because we’ve never had one guard before and our song has some speech in it, which we’ve also never had.”

Their practices are similar to fall season, being on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, they now run from 3:30-6:00.

While winter season is definitely different from that of fall, it still requires the same endurance and passion. Both involve complicated tosses and dancework that is beautiful to watch. Lillian Lerch (c/o of 2021) added, “It’s fun. It’s definitely a lot of work, but it’s worth it.”

The season ends around May with about five to six competitions. Traveling to various high schools to perform, Kennedy’s winter guard is not something to be missed.