An Inside Look at the 2026 Winter Guard Season

Zoe Darby

Jan 22

3 min read

BV Newsroom

By Zoe Darby

Fair Oaks, CA - January 22, 2026

What is winter guard? You may have heard the announcements on the PA system, congratulating the Bella Vista Winter Guard for one thing or another, without really knowing what it is. Winter guard is an after school program lasting from December to April. Students learn to dance, handle color guard equipment, and perform at competitions. It is physically strenuous (just try to throw a 6-foot flag while dancing), and yet appears graceful. Usually, winter guard ensembles portray a story or character. This year, our winter guard is telling the story of a heartbroken woman.

I had the joy of interviewing one of the senior winter guard members, Sam Brown, about the 2026 Bella Vista Winter Guard show.

Q: My first question for you is easy: What is winter guard?

A: Winter guard is basically color guard without the marching band, so just color guard itself. We get to do pretty much all the equipment, usually. There’s a lot more in-depth choreography, because it’s really centered around color guard.

Q: What equipment do you use?

A: Flag, rifle, saber…some other schools use airblades, but not us (Author’s note: The rifles are wooden and the sabers are dull metal; they are thrown and twirled).

Q: What is the theme and story of this year’s show?

A: It’s a heartbreak in the 50’s. [The show] is to Adele, the song Love In the Dark. It’s really emotional and sad, because our character is being broken up with. The man is just running away from his girlfriend.

Q: What is your favorite part about winter guard:

A: Probably the more diverse and in-depth work with the equipment. As much as being with the marching band and being outside is fun, I really like the choreography in winter guard. You get more understanding of the sport. It’s really nice.

Q: What is the hardest part about winter guard?

A: The fear of being injured, and getting injured. Like, when you’re learning a new toss the instructors say ‘Oh, just throw that in the air above your head’. But what if it comes back and hits me? That’s really going to hurt. You have to conquer that fear of getting hurt.

Q: How did you learn about winter guard?

A: I learned it through doing color guard. We didn’t have winter guard until my sophomore year, and I wasn’t in that show. I learned about it from being in the band program in general. It was also posted [on Instagram] for a while.

Q: Why did you want to join the winter guard/color guard team?

A: It looked like a really fun sport. I looked stuff up about it, and I knew some people that were in it. It looked so fun, also because I was in dance. It’s a great sport if you want to do a mix of acting, being athletic, and dancing.

Q: Is there anything else you want to add?

A: Shout out to the 2025 color guard members! I love you guys so much.

Next month, our winter guard team will go to their first competition at Rosemont High School. I wish all the luck to our talented performers, and can’t wait to see their show at the community showcase in April.

These two picture were taken during the conditioning and warm-ups done at the start of practice.