Every week in the gym, rifles soar as winter guard members practice choreography on the floor. Like any other sport, winter guard has its fair share of stereotypes and misconceptions, junior Dani Brill said.

As a dancing sport, one misconception is that winter guard is mainly female-dominated, and boys are unfit to join the team, Brill said.

“People seem to think that it’s a really girly thing to do, but that’s not really the experience I get,” Brill said. “People seem to think it’s mostly girls, so I wouldn’t fit in as a guy, but we have a couple guys on the team, and they fit in.”

Additionally, because winter guard involves choreography, many people mistakenly believe dancing experience is a prerequisite, junior Melody Lam said.

“I wasn’t able to dance when I joined, and I still [came] pretty far,” Lam said. “We’ll teach you. We’ll take you. You don’t have to have any [experience]. You just have to want to be there.”

Despite being a beginner-friendly sport, the environment is still fast-paced, something many people easily underestimate, Lam said.

“It’s a mental exercise, because you have to remember a six-minute show, and you have to remember all your choreo, your counts and where you’re going on the floor,” Lam said. “A lot of people don’t realize that when they first see [winter guard], because we make a point to make it look effortless.”

Considering the amount of time and dedication put into each performance, captain, senior Alyssa Kolin said that many people still do not consider winter guard as a sport.

“People don’t always understand just the pure amount of time, energy and effort we put into it,” Kolin said. “I [also] feel like they don’t always see it as a sport, even though it’s called the sport of the arts. I feel like that really covers it well because it’s [both] a sport and an art.”