VICENZA, Italy -- The winter season for high school athletics here is usually made up of basketball, wrestling and cheerleading. But this year, Vicenza High School added a new sport, Winter Guard.
Known to its fans as the "Sport of the Arts," Winter Guard involves choreographed movements with different props like flags, sticks or mock rifles. According to the Winter Guard International website (www.wgi.org), Winter Guard "provides a venue for young people to achieve the extraordinary through performance and competition."
For many of the Vicenza team, which they have named "Avventura," being a part of Winter Guard has given them a chance to learn a new sport while also spending time with their friends.
"It makes it easier to coordinate because we already know each other," said 10th-grader Nic Martinez. "It makes us more organized."
For team captain Makaylah Brown, also a 10th-grader, the fact that most of the team had little to no experience wasn't a problem.
"It's actually the perfect opportunity because there are no bad habits," she said. "It's been fun with this group because they're really talented naturally and learn well."
As director of team, Ronda Metzger had to pull from a variety of groups to put together a full squad. Her first criteria was "no experience necessary."
"It's the first year, so only three (of the students) had ever twirled flag before," said Metzger. "The other members are mostly instrumentalists that we borrowed from marching band, but they had never done anything like this before.
"Even the ones who had twirled flags hadn't done swing flag, hadn't done rifle, so this was a completely new thing for everyone-- and new to me, also, because even though I was a performer, I've never been a director before."
The group performed during halftime ceremonies at several basketball games throughout the season, and then finished with a private performance for their family and friends Feb. 26 at the high school gym. For performers and director, the last show was a chance to show how much they had improved over the course of the season.
"The kids have come an extremely long way and are putting on an exciting show that the audience will love," said Metzger. "I hope that this community that has not seen Winter Guard before falls in love with something new, and gets bitten in the way that I have gotten bitten and the kids have gotten bitten. [I hope they will] see why this is fun and exciting and enjoyable to participate in and enjoyable to watch."
"I hope that they see that we worked very hard to do this for them and they see our dedication for Winter Guard," Brown added.
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