There are a plethora of activities within Ben Davis. Ranging from football to volleyball and on to show choir, few high schools can show the kind of variety that this school has.

One activity is a wonderfully athletic competition-based group called color guard, with the school’s competing team being the winter guard.

Ben Davis has had a strong winter guard for a long time and it’s bound to get even stronger as French teacher and winter guard director Brayton Mendenhall notes the quality of the Winter Guard’s members.

“I’m very excited to have the members who work so hard and who want to bring the prestige of a strong nationally profiled team to Ben Davis,” Mendenhall said.

The work that they do to get there is astonishing as they prepare by practicing the choreography and working every day on technical exercises that help students to understand the weight and flow of their equipment.

But that’s only a fraction of the work as choreographers come in weekly to help the students with dance classes of numerous styles, including ballet, jazz and hip-hop.

The show this year is representative of the strong, powerful personalities of the performers themselves. Titled “What Were the Crows After”, the show reflects the aggressive nature of birds of prey and contains excerpts from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”.

“The group has made great improvements in their overall commitment and dedication to the team,” Mendenhall said. “I am very proud of their competitive edge this year.”

That dedication will carry them a long way as they “continue to improve on individual performance quality.”

Between Tod Hinton, Mendenhall and the storm of choreographers the winter guard will be very successful as they push to find the national recognition that they want.

The March winter guard schedule is:

WINTER GUARD — 3/1 at Northview High School (Brazil, IN), 3/8 at Decatur Central High School, 3/15 at Mooresville High School, 3/22 at Center Grove.

The March winter percussion schedule is:

WINTER PERCUSSION — 3/1 at Owen Valley High School (Spencer, IN), 3/8 at Greenfield Central, 3/15 at Avon High School, 3/22 at Ben Davis