By Jessica Fontenot

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MHS Winter Guard performed with three other schools at Kaiser High School on March 28 to receive feedback on their showcases. Not only did this benefit Kalani and Farrington High Schools, which are fairly new to the winter guard program, but it also prepared the MHS guard for the Winter Guard Invitational (WGI) competitions in the coming weeks.

“It’s more of a feedback type (competition) just because there’s not a lot of people that are participating so the journey, the comments, the feedbacks we get back are useful for us,” said winter guard adviser Derek Kaapana.

The competition was hosted by the Hawaii International Music Festival and is treated as any other competition. Each team is ranked and given a place based on their performance. Given such evaluations, the guard is able to assess themselves in preparation for upcoming competitions. “When we have an audience, it’s different than just practicing so you’re in full uniform and you’re in full character, and so when you have an audience do it they can react and they’ll give you feedback,” said captain Senior Robert Longboy, “After we perform, (the judge’s feedback) is probably a lot better than just having what the coaches and the advisers would tell us.”

The competition in general was not only helpful to MHS in helping them prepare for next week but also for Kalani High School. Fairly new to the winter guard program, they started their own guard last year while Farrington High School has been performing since 2009. “They are both new to the winter guard team pretty much, and although they are, I wouldn’t say behind, but they aren’t the same in technique base,” said Longboy, “I think us showcasing what can happen in a high school is very positive to them. Especially to their students and their staff to show them that this is a possibility, you can get there.”

The Hawaii Invitational Music Festival invites schools from around the island as well as any schools on the mainland that are willing to travel to Hawaii to compete. Judges from the mainland are also invited to the event. “These are our, you know, really trained-well judges and some of them judged at WGI competition before too so we really value their feedback in helping us to get better,” said Kaapana.

The only group from the mainland that participated in the competition was Mt. Carmel High School from San Diego, Calif. “Obviously they are not from here and that their style in spinning, they are different from us in how they spin,” commented rifle guard and Junior Alina Kalani, “Unlike them our guard only gets to travel once every two years, so every other year, and for us it’s a big deal.” When the MHS guard is able to travel, they compete at the WGI competition on the mainland, usually held in Ohio.

The event prepared the winter guard as they had a competition on April 4 at Kaiser High School, where the team had an advantage over other schools, because they were able to perform their showcase on the field the previous week.

The MHS guard looks forward to this competition every year, this years held at Dayton, Ohio on April 9 and hope that their program continues to grow along with Kalani and Farrington High School’s winter guard.