WAKEFIELD — This past Saturday the Wakefield Memorial High School Winter Guard grabbed a first-place finish at the WGI Regional Competition in Salem, MA. The 15-person team spent more than 12 hours at Salem High School, awaiting snow, performing this season’s Saturn program in both the preliminaries and finals.
Winter Guard, as described by WGI, is the sport of indoor color guard, featuring a combination of flags, sabers, mock rifles, and other equipment. As well as dance and other interpretive movements.
Wakefield’s show this season has the team dressed in glittery black costumes swinging, tossing, and spinning flags with silks featuring images of the Earth, Saturn, and cosmic bursts along with gold hula hoops representing the rings of Saturn. This trip to the cosmos is described by Director Jackie Gaffney as the demonstration of wanting to leave the comfort of Earth for life on Saturn because life is thought to be better there. She says the show starts on the home planet and then moves through outer space on a journey that ultimately brings the audience to the ringed planet by the end of the production. The performance is set to the music of singer-songwriter Sza, Japanese singer-songwriter Joji, and the electronic artist Alpha Rhythm.
The first preliminary round this weekend narrowed the field from seven to just three, with Wakefield on top. They then advanced to the finals to face Methuen High School from Methuen and Shenendehowa High School from Clifton, NY. Wakefield’s performance during the finals led their division with a score of 81.060. It was the third-highest score received that day across 6 divisions and 26 teams, some traveling as far as Canada to compete.
The next competition will be back in Salem, where the team will be competing in the NESBA Winter Event on March 8.