After spending the fall working with the entire marching band, the winter guard at Warren Central now has the stage to itself.

The members of the color guard come together after marching season and put on their own indoor performance with no musicians to compete with.

“They will be dancing, spinning flags, spinning rifles,” guard instructor Jace McMullin said. “This is more advanced. It is just them. They have five judges instead of the one they are normally used to. They are critiqued more on technical levels as well as overall effect and how the show works.”

The varsity winter guard has 11 members this year and the junior varsity team has 24. The varsity team’s show will be an approximately four and a half minute performance to Alessia Cara’s ‘River Of Tears.’

“Basically it is a show about the kids having been scorned by somebody,” McMullin said.

“It is a depressed show about being scorned by somebody. It can be a friend, a boyfriend, whatever it is.”

The team has been practicing since November and performed their show in full for the first time this past weekend in Brandon.

This weekend they will travel to Pensacola, Florida for a large competition.

Their season will end in April with circuit championships April 7 in Jackson and World Championships in Dayton, Ohio, April 11-14.

“It is just us so there is a lot more time to perfect what we have going on rather than worrying about the band as a whole,” senior guard member Czaria Bell said. “It is just visual because you can see what we’re doing. It is a lot of pressure because it is just all eyes on us.”

The group didn’t make the trip to Dayton last year, but McMullin said he has a more experienced group this season and felt they were ready to make the trip.

“It is good for them to see different groups from different parts of the country and compete against them and see what is happening outside of Mississippi,” he said.

Bell said the travel they get to do during the season is one of her favorite parts along with the family like atmosphere that develops within the team.

“You get a lot of experience and you travel a lot of places and meet different people,” she said.

“There’s a lot of different ethnicities and backgrounds. To me it is fun getting to know each other.”

The junior varsity team will travel to all the same competitions as the varsity group, except for the World Championships where there are expected to be more than 100 groups in just their division.

“I think they enjoy performing and competing against different groups and it is just them,” McMullin said.

“They don’t have to worry about any other people like brass players, woodwind players. It is just them in a smaller environment inside.”