FHN’s Winter Guard will be heading to Mascoutah High School in Illinois to compete in their first competition of the season on Jan. 26. This will be the competitive debut for the JV and middle school teams, which are new this year. With the addition of two new groups, Winter Guard will be competing with 50 other schools in various skill divisions.

“I think [Winter Guard] has a lot more potential this year,” Candace Siem, junior and varsity winter guard member, said. “Everyone has a really good mindset towards it, and we’ve already gotten a lot more done than we did this time last year.”

The JV team is off to a promising start, despite growing pains caused by adjusting to their new status.

“The JV team has been having some challenges learning how to work together, but other than that the skill is definitely there,” Head Coach John Miller said. “They’re just learning how to be a team right now.”

With their struggles, the novice team has still achieved consistent results. At this rate of improvement, they are expected to be in good shape come the middle of January.

“Most of JV is new people.” freshman Morgan Statzer said. “We all have our own things that we’re good at but we have to figure out how to weave it all together to make a good show and make something amazing.”

Their determination to impress and advance keeps the team morale up and a positive outlook for the season.

“The coaches expect us to do very well, placing every competition because of our work ethic and how much we want to be good, and that initiative to push ourselves,” sophomore Maddy Brewer said. “John has a very high standard for us, we want to prove to him that we’re good. So we want to push ourselves to meet that expectation.”