Despite a late season departure of their director, the winter guard team pushed forward and ended their season strong.

This past fall the former Winter Guard director Jesse Arbolay got accepted into Austin’s first Independent World Guard, Invictus. With this acceptance came a lot of schedule conflicts that ended in him having to leave Akins in March to be a part of the group.

Junior and Varsity member Elizabeth Rocha believed that with the departure of Arbolay the team was brought together closer than ever.

“Now that he was gone we were like ‘we have to stick together. We have to make sure that everyone feels like they belong here and that we’re going to be OK,” Rocha said. “We all just had some kind of bond and no one felt like an outcast. It was really great to see everyone come together despite what happened.”

This year was the first time that the winter guard competed in Winter Guard International (WGI). The varsity team ended their season as finalists in WGI competing with the top teams in the region.

Senior and captain Alicia “Raynne” Miller-Moya said the team was excited that they did so well when they attended WGI for the first time. Although the team’s score was not in the top places, they still managed to make the cut to advance to the finals.

“We didn’t really care as a whole because it was like we made finals and there are some schools that didn’t make finals but we’re one of them,” Miller-Moya said. “We’re here, we were always in the top half as a whole class group because our class is bigger now and it’s way more competitive. You can have a great run, but that doesn’t mean you can automatically get 3rd place.”

The JV team also had a successful season placing in the top ranks at the Texas Color Guard Circuits (TCGC)

“At all the TCGCs, JV always placed. They got first place and second place a lot although at state they placed seventh out of 30-something teams. They were always in the top half,” said Miller-Moya.