Winterguard was scheduled toperform last weekend in Kansas City. They were also supposed to perform on Jan. 23 in Springfield, but they dropped out of Mid Continental ColorGuard Association competition due to preparation conflicts.

It was Jan. 21 when coach Duane Williams informed Winterguardmembers that he had pulled them outof competition due to the fact that hedidn’t think they were ready. JuniorMegan O’Loughlin, attributes their unpreparedness to their new song’s intense beat and quick pace.

“We didn’t have enough time on the floor,” O’Loughlin said. “The show has to be about four minutes long and we had at most three minutes. People weren’t practicing outside of our practices.”

Winterguard did so well last yearthat they moved up a level from Scholastic A to Scholastic Open, one of the highest competitive levels. While notbeing ready to perform, Guard also had a plethora of injuries to deal with.

“There are always small injuries…but never this many all at the same time,” senior Kaitlyn Shikore said.

Guard had been practicing sevento eight hours a week, and added a choreography “camp” on Jan. 16, but Guard didn’t have their practice tarpwith them, forcing them to finalize choreography later.

“It’s not that we’re not good, buttime just wasn’t working with us,”Megan Mccolloch said.

This weekend, Winterguard isgoing to Nashville for a Winterguard International competition.

“We’re gonna have to practice a lotmore and build on the show, but if wecan do that, we’ll do fine,” Winter-guard member Beth Kruse said.