If you go to Woodbridge’s football games, you will see the cheerleaders, dance team, and marching band perform. Within the marching band is the color guard. The color guard twirls flags, riffles, and more while contributing to the marching band’s show both at halftime and competitions.
However, after contributing to the marching band’s show, members of the guard get together during winter to do their own show at their own competitions. This is our revived Woodbridge High School Winter Guard.
About Winter Guard
Coach Becca Demcsak and Coach Nicole Talerico, the colorguard coaches, also work together to run Winter Guard. However, unlike most coaches, they do not teach at Woodbridge High School.
Coach Talerico says “..our dedication to the program and our student’s success does not change based on where we work.”
Coach Demcsak considers it “…essential for students to be exposed to diverse perspectives…as we don’t approach our roles from a teacher’s perspective.”
Winter Guard, like marching band, attend, compete in, and even host competitions.
Talerico says competitions are “Long Saturdays filled with excitement! We start off with a morning practice to warm up..then take a break to eat, do hair and makeup…and travel across New Jersey to different schools.”
Our Winter Guard is very successful, even moving up two ranks in just half their rookie season. It, however, is not all about scores and competitions and winning, it’s also about building a family. A family that, this year, is led by Senior Captain Navi Rasimowicz.
About the Captain
Rasimowicz says “After my junior year, my coaches talked to me and said they were thinking about bringing back the captain role and so I filled out the paperwork…and then they told me I was accepted as captain.”
When asked why he decided to be captain, he said “I knew that all of the seniors that we had my junior year…was the majority of our team, so I knew we were gonna have a lot of young people joining..I knew they could be very overwhelmed and needed someone to guide them…I figured I could step up and help.”
The Winter Guard practices a few times a week at School 11 and competes most Saturdays, even hosting a competition on February 24th.
“It’s been the greatest thing ever,” says junior Brianna Limmer.
