Winter guard State preliminaries will occur at Mooresville High School on March 3. Guard members prepare during practices every Gold Day morning and afternoon rehearsals on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturday.

“(During practice, we) learn choreography, clean choreography and do chunks and run-throughs of our show over and over,” Paige Roberts, guard member and junior, said.

Participating in winter guard, according to Sally Ware, guard member and senior, takes a large amount of time and effort.

“Guard is my life. I spend all my energy, physically and emotionally, towards guard. It’s definitely hard to handle school work but if you make a schedule for yourself, things get easier. But I couldn’t imagine my life without guard,”  Ware said.

Winter guard members earned a victory at Danville High School on Feb. 18 in what was their best performance so far, according to senior and guard member Sally Ware. World guard members came out on top with a score of 83.4.  Additionally, the AA guard moved up to the A class. According to Roberts, the guard classes in ascending order are junior varsity, AA, A, open, and world class.

“The biggest competition, though, is (World Guard International) week, which is in April,” Roberts said.

“(The world guard was) the 2011 Scholastic World Class Champions. So we will be defending champions this year,” sponsor Rosie Queen said via email.

However, Ware said that guard members are prepared to continue the success that they’ve had this season.

“I feel like we’ll do really well and keep excelling. These next two weeks we have nonstop practice and it’s the time where we start getting really go at our show,” Ware said.