Lake Norman High Winter Guard teams finish seventh in regional competition

Posted on by Mike Fuhrman

Special to Iredell Free News

After being dormant for seven years, the Lake Norman High School Winter Guard has returned to their school and community with high honors. Guard combines athleticism, dance, music and equipment into a production that is considered “The Sport of the Arts.”

Guard programs at Lake Norman High School had been non-existent for several years. During that time, Director of Bands Chris Brown had a vision of developing a guard with a strong work ethic and integrity.

After an exhaustive search for the right leader, Kyle Campbell was hired as the new Color Guard Program Director, responsible for recruiting, training, and building the program into a competitive activity with high standards.

Campbell has since compressed five years of development into a highly successful eight-month span.

The 2022-2023 fall competition season brought forth many challenges for a new five-member guard team. As the year progressed and moved into the winter competition season, the five original members grew into two teams of 34 members broken into junior varsity and varsity groups. With only two months until their first contest, the teams started to work toward the vision that they and Campbell had set forth.

Countless hours of training were crafted into their production this season, and the hard work paid off.

Each group placed in the top three at their first three contests in the CWEA competition circuit, with the varsity team scoring highest overall at its first contest. The teams placed seventh in their respective classes at the recent CWEA Regional Championship.

It’s safe to say that these students have a passion and a work ethic like no other. A new challenge and show come their way each and every season.

Planning has already begun for the 2023-24 season. The LNHS Guard program will have open auditions to help grow and bring other hard working individuals to the team. Auditions will be April 24-28 from 4:30 to 6:45 p.m. Auditions are open to any student currently in grades 7-11 who attend Lake Norman High School or feeder middle schools.