sports Winter Guard, Riflery, and other winter sports Written by: Alexis Chandler Photo Provided By: Emily Blalock
*
Winter guard is an indoor color guard sport and performance art derived from military ceremonies. Unlike traditional color guard, winter guard performances and contests are held indoors, usually in a gymnasium or an indoor arena. Emily Blalock is a sophomore and is a member of winter guard. While reflecting on her experience, she said, “I think my favorite memory would have to be last year’s season, just because of how supportive everybody was and how beautiful of a show we had with the gracefulness and the music and just the aspect of the show in general.” The way Emily describes the winter guard program is, “one huge family in all honesty we love each other we support each other and we're always there for each other whether it's just helping each other with choreography or helping each other outside of winter guard . Any sports team becomes like your family.”
A memory that really shows that familial aspect , according to Emily is “last year when I was first diagnosed as a type one diabetic, everybody was so interested in learning. I couldn't do really anything except for the first movement of a show and everyone was just so supportive and helped me to love who I am now.” She talked about what she looks forward to during the winter guard season: “I would have to say that my favorite part is the competition aspect because we get to show who Creekview is and how powerful of a team we are. We also get to see other people performing and how beautiful their shows are, and we all get to meet new people and we get to show, 'Hey we’re Creekview, we’re the Grizzlies, we know what we are doing, we are this powerful of a team.'” Jack Poulos is a senior and participates in riflery. He is a part of the marksman team with Pickens County Sportsman Club. It’s a classic shooting sports team. When thinking of his favorite memory of the team he said, “At some point I really realized that riflery is more of a real sport. When I first started it didn’t really feel like a regular team sport, per se. We had our state match in 2018 in Athens, GA and at that point I really had bonded with my team mates a lot more than I usually did. I kind of realized 'ok this is a real sport and I’m actually having fun at it and I hate sports,' so it was a big moment for me.” When asked about his experience in riflery he said “It’s great. I started in freshman year and I didn’t really have any main sports that I played so I felt kind of left out, but when I finally had gone to a rifle team and started doing really well it was amazing. I finally felt like I had a place in sports.” Poulos said, “I feel like a lot of the stigma about riflery and other shooting sports comes from safety. It doesn’t feel like a regular 9 sport, but when you are doing it everything feels completely safe, no accidents are even possible. But watching a match, I don’t really know how I could compare it. The teams work together just like friends would, just like a regular team.” As sports teams become like7family, they want to make everyone feel included.
