Maybe the first sound the first human ever heard was a tree falling in the woods. Or a bird crying in the air as it flew around looking for food. Or perhaps it was the sound of his or her own heartbeat. The Warsaw Community High School Winter Guard will try to visually display what it would have been like to first hear sound at the beginning of time with their 2014 show “Origin of Sound.” The team is coached by Andrew Neuenschwander and sisters Leah and Hannah Leland. In an interview Thursday, Neuenschwander said the song they are using for their show is “Chowo-Oto,” a Japanese song by musical artist Kokia. “We liked the song. It’s very dynamic. There’s a lot of things as an artist you can visualize with it,” Neuenschwander said. The tarp the Winter Guard performs on was just recently painted. It has “sound waves” painted on it that begin small in a corner and get bigger as they spread across the tarp. The 20 students who make up the Guard use sabers, rifles and flags in their performance. “The sabers are standard, but they are advanced pieces of equipment so they’re not in every show, but we decided for this show we can use them,” Neuenschwander said. Four contests plus the divisional finals are on the team’s schedule this year. “We compete against schools all around the state. They perform their own shows with whatever music they choose,” he said. “We judged on general effect, ensemble (performing together as opposed to individuals), musicality and articulation.” The first show is today at Greenfield Central High School. Upcoming shows are Feb. 8 at Heritage High School, Fort Wayne; Feb. 15 at Goshen High School; and Feb. 22 at Anderson High School. They will take a few weeks off and then compete March 15 at divisional finals, with location to be determined. “We’re entered into Double A class. If we perform well enough, they will bump us up to A,” Neuenschwander said. “One of our goals is to win competition. Our goal as coaches is to please the audience and help (the students) achieve their true potential.” Junior Sierra Dresch has been a member of Winter Guard for three years. “It keeps me active and I make a lot of friends,” she said. “This show is probably the funnest show I’ve been in. It’s challenging but it helps us as far as being performers,” Dresch said. She said her goal this year is to just improve overall and “improve as a family and hopefully move up a class.” In her first year on the team, freshman Kourtney Tackett said she joined after one of her friends and one of the coaches told her about it. “I figured I would try,” she said. She got a late start in Guard, having joined two weeks after everyone else. “It’s been really fun for me. It was frustrating at first since I started after everyone else, but it’s been fun,” Tackett commented. The most difficult part of Winter Guard for her, she said, was learning to throw and catch the flag. It’s hit her in the face at least once, but “that’s normal,” she said. “I’ve gotten better,” Tackett said.
