Coming off the high of the NJMBDA State Champions, the Marching Gaels break off into their indoor seasons, Indoor Percussion and Winter Guard. The Winter Guard team is back for a second season in class Scholastic Regional A, with the title of MAIN 2023 third place champions. The 2024 winter guard show is entitled “A Gilded Touch”, showcasing the story of King Midas—everything he touches turns to gold.
The Winter Guard team is led by Coaches Cindy Herrera and Courtney Palazzo. Herrera is the director of color guard and coaches them during the outdoor and indoor seasons. Herrera has been a part of color guard for 11 years now, and has been coaching for 5 years total, and she’s been with Roxbury since 2020.
Coming into the new season, Herrera has a few expectations for the team. She states “My expectations and hopes for the season are different. While I expect everyone to put in the effort to make their season be as successful as it was last year, my hope is for the whole team to understand where their motivation to do better comes from.” Herrera continues to state her hope for the team to understand it’s not just about getting the trophy and winning, it’s about “being the best version of yourself that you can be.”
Since last year, the winter guard has moved up two classes, meaning there will be a different approach to the season. Herrera says, “This allows us to start challenging our students with harder choreography and new tricks on equipment. This season in the new division means that our staff is going to be way more technical than we have before and we are going to introduce choreography that many people have never tried before.”
Last season was the Roxbury winter guard’s first season since 2015, and they placed in Third! When asked how she felt about this incredible victory Herrera said, “I’ve accomplished so much in my 11 years, but have not once earned myself a medal: so this 3rd place finish out of 16 competitors and after being bumped up a division in the middle of our first season was such an amazing accomplishment.” Herrera continued to say how her intention was not to win, but to get the program started again. So, having the win was extremely important, and she couldn’t be more proud of the team.
The show has three soloists to portray this story—King Midas played by Nancy Bogardus, Dionysus played by Mikayla Allen, and the Daughter played by Jeni Meyer. When asked how Herrera and Palazzo came about the idea, Herrera stated, “I actually didn’t come up with the theme this year. We decided on our show theme the day of the Family & Friends Championship Send-off Performance in April.” Instead Palazzo brought up the idea, and convinced Herrera to make the decision.
Mikayla Allen, one of the soloists and a first time winter guard member, was asked about her first indoor season: “I am super excited for my first indoor season and I’m hoping to get better at different flag techniques.” Additionally, she was asked as to why she decided to join winter guard, “I chose to join this season because I saw how fun it looked and I wanted to join because I can’t stand to be on the side watching I gotta be in everything I can!”
Now that she is a soloist, Allen was asked to describe how she felt about this achievement. Allen states, “I’m so hyped to be a soloist this is literally my dream to do all this stuff and I thank everyone for helping me make it come true and I feel absolutely psyched about this and can’t wait to improve throughout the rest of the year!”
The season will consist of 7 competitions, with the first competition being held on January 27, 2024 at West Orange High School. With music featuring the song “Gold” by Imagine Dragons, the Winter Guard team will perform their story telling of King (Queen in this instance) Midas!
