Rhea Winter Guard Will Be Road Warriors with 4 Competitions On the Raod in 2025
Maryville, TN -- On Saturday, January 25, 2025, Rhea competed with teams from 16 other schools in the East Tennessee Performing Arts Association(ETPAA) Guard Qualifier. Those teams included teams from Northview Academy, Rockcastle County High School, Pigeon Forge High School Winterguard, Karns High School JV Guard, Bearden , Knoxville Central High School Varsity Winterguard, Lakeway Christian Academy Winterguard, East Hamilton JV Winter Guard, Jefferson County Winter Guard, Clinton High School Winterguard, Claiborne High School Winterguard, Alcoa High School WinterGuard, Grainger High School Winterguard, Roane County High School Winterguard, Soddy-Daisy Winterguard and Powell Bijoux.
The Winter Guard Club is a school affiliated club at Rhea County High School, and faculty sponsored by Tyler Tallent and the staff, working pro bono.
This 2025 season’s performance is titled, Pyromaniac, where the students are performing a routine of dance, flag, saber, and rifle to the song Play with Fire by Sam Tinnesz with additional vocals by Pearl Allmon, senior team captain. This routine was performed at Heritage High School for the ETPAA Qualifiers where they placed 1st in the Scholastic Regional A division and will continue to be performed at all future competitions, including Grainger High School this Saturday, February 8th.
The RCHS Winter Guard director for 2025 is Alexandra Marsh and her staff includes Alyssa Valentine and Brandi Metts. The faculty sponsor is Tyler Tallent. Team captains are Pearl Allmom and Autumn Wente. Team members include: Jessicah Poole, Kasey Hancock, Brittley Powell, Darcy Cannon, Alexa Pacheco, Hailey Wilson, Natalia Lopez, Hernandez. Annaliesa Evans, Amy Bautista Martinez, Skylar Lehr, Emily Vickers, Fiona Vickers, Alexis Bunch, Ashlee Lewis, and Ashlyn Gunter.
The schedule for the 2025 Season:
Feb. 8 @ Grainger High School
February 22 @ Gibbs High School
March 15 @ Lakeway Christian Academy
March 29 @ Karns High School
Coach Marsh is a Rhea County High Alumni where she performed with the marching band and winter guard programs in 2015 and 2016.
Marsh provided some background on her journey to leading the RCHS Winter Guard. ":After graduation I went on to perform with the Liberty University Spirit of the Mountain program in Lynchburg, VA in 2017 and 2018. I then moved on from performing to coaching in 2019 at Osbourn High School in Virginia. In 2022 I moved and continued coaching at Arlington High School in Tennessee. In 2023, I gladly was offered the position to coach color guard with the Rhea County High School Marching Band under Gabriel Lajas."
"After a season of coaching students at RCHS, I pursued the Winter Guard Club but it was already under a different director. I was informed at the beginning of the 2024 fall semester that the club was seeking a new director for the 2025 season and I eagerly applied to fill that role."
"As a married mom of two little girls, coaching has been a huge outlet for me. To be able to share the love of the activity with others and see them flourish and succeed has been one of my greatest joys. I’m forever grateful to have the opportunity and wish to continue on doing so for the foreseeable future."
This Saturday, the RCHS Winter Guard will be performing with the new flag silks for the first time this season,.