2026 WGI Color Guard Participants

[Rubisco]

The current entries can be found here:

https://www.wgi.org/currententries/cg-current-entries/

So far, only those going to Dayton have been allowed to register. The contests should fill up in the coming weeks. 

It's exciting to see Warren Central from Indianapolis making a trip down to San Antonio. They seem to enjoy attending a new out-of-state regional each year. Texas will be lucky to have them!

 

Update: Dayton has really filled up. Only IW and SO have a few spots left. It's going to be a very competitive World Championships. Current Texas entries for Dayton:

Independent A: Allure Independent, DTX Independent, RGV Winter Guard, Redemption Guard, and Seven Lakes

Independent Open: Industry Independent, NOVA Independent Winterguard, ORIGINS Open, and Undaunted. (Verve is on the wait-list.)

Independent World: Invictus and ORIGINS

Scholastic A: Chisholm Trail, Friendswood, George Ranch, Grand Oaks, Hays JV, Hebron, Hutto, Jersey Village, Joshua, Montwood, Pebble Hills, Rock Hill, Southlake Carroll JV, Tomball, Wakeland, Walnut Grove, Westwood, and Wylie.

Scholastic Open: Bridgeland, Claudia Taylor Johnson, Clear Brook, Cy-Fair, Hays, James Bowie, Melissa, Pearland, Ronald Reagan, Southlake Carroll, and Westlake.

Scholastic World: Little Elm and The Woodlands.

[packwick]

no wgi regionals for Emerson??? was gonna ask if they imploded but they're signed up for ntca. why no wgi??

unrelated: do u know how many tx guards don't follow the 8 hr rule?? was reading tcgc proposals, one mentioned how "most of us follow the uil 8 hr rule" which sort of implies maybe not all do?? btw weird it keeps getting called a uil rule when it's a TEA commissioner's rule that defines extracurriculars under its purview broadly as "competitive activities" and not just UIL ones.

[Rubisco]

@packwick I have no way of answering your question without examining every guard's schedule, and most of those are kept private. It might be kind of an unwanted spotlight on certain units, too, if they're rehearsing more than others and not achieving a certain level of success despite that.

Because it was almost a decade ago, and I have no idea how they currently operate, I'll tell you that James Bowie rehearsed more than 8 hours a week for their absolutely amazing and tremendously difficult Anarchy of Silence show in 2016. The only reason I know that is from a school article saying that they sometimes had 12 hour rehearsals, and that specifically mentioned how the winter guard didn't have to follow the UIL 8 Hour Rule.

Honestly, after looking up the TEA rule just now for the first time in a long time, I do find it a bit confusing. The top part makes it sound like extracurriculars are just UIL or school board sanctioned activities, but then below that the definition of extracurriculars seems to be broadened. I think it would be hard to enforce outside of UIL penalties anyway.

[packwick]

there were sooo many awesome tx guards on the marching field this yr and really excited to see some of the ones that impressed me the most make the Dayton trip, like Wylie and Westlake and Pearland and tomball and grand oaks and Etc. etc.

and ORIGINS!!!! yessss!! hope they have something special for both their guards this season. curious about some of the new Dallas ones too w/ mirage/menage not fielding, or flooring?, anything this season.

woodlands will be fine, will they win again??? hmmm, seems weird saying this since they won w/ a 98 last time, but i hope the design is a lil stronger this season, esp the staging, DA was their lowest caption average, 96 versus 98.5s. wanna see something that's as compelling upstairs from start to finish as the first parts of their How to Move show.

ofc top to bottom their talent on the marching field this yr was still off the charts. just hoping for a lil better continuity of the phrases and higher risk skills, like they had last season from their main line.

speeeaking of phrase length/continuity... actually my personal favorite way of putting it is phrase fullness, which encompasses both length and density... all guard directors should watch this Carmel clip from the Rosie Queen era, hot off of another wgi win and en route to another boa national championship. the craftsmanship and seamlessness of the phrases are so evident!!! the blending of the body w/ the spinning, + the traveling phrase at the end... just ugh!!! just ignore the crappy Flo music!!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wZafV0-rQ7E&pp=ygURQ2FybWVsIGd1YXJkIDIwMTc%3D

[Rubisco]

I'm probably a bit quixotic, but I would love to see Texas guards sweep the golds on the Scholastic side this season. They came so close in 2025, and after promotions, there are several that you'd expect to see hanging near the top again in Open and A.

The idea that Texas guards are behind the rest of the country is quickly becoming an old canard.

Now, if only the marching band designers in Texas could stage them a little better!

[Rubisco]

Also, @packwick, I'm still kind of, sort of waiting on your marching band thoughts for this year. You have apparently already moved on to winter guard! 😅

[packwick]

3 hours ago, Rubisco said:

Also, @packwick, I'm still kind of, sort of waiting on your marching band thoughts for this year. You have apparently already moved on to winter guard! 😅

im marching banded out ngl. ive stopped recording stuff.

everyone at GN was great, my predictions, very accurate again besides bentonville. only a few quibbles w/ specific captions but overall picture fine.

ppl have def taken the flomo loss hard, prob bc a.) they loved the show and b.) flomo were Texas's best this yr, it stings a lil more by extension. they were fab but avon's show was a teeny bit more effective and that's the game in boa. too bad the general in GE doesnt refer to the general audience but the totality of the show's effects.

buuut if all this pushes tx bands to try out a new circuit w/ a 30-30-40 system w/ a guard and perc judge then im all for it!!

tbh a lot of confusion would be fixed by learning more about how visual and effect are judged. that's 80% of the score.

wgi is a great circuit to learn about visual.

[LeanderMomma]

21 minutes ago, packwick said:

im marching banded out ngl. ive stopped recording stuff.

I have noticed.  😭

But I get it.  

[TWHSPercDad]

Well, it’s the very first week following marching season, and you know what that means in The Woodlands, TX?

TWHS Winterguard Placement Auditions are THIS WEEK!

Their upcoming 2026 WGI/TCGC season will be another great one to remember!!!

[Tubalord11]

Super excited for this season!! Also, have they just not posted the super regionals yet or am I blind, couldn’t find the one in Coppell, might go back. @TWHSPercDad, any chance they are coming back?? 
 

Edit: okay so are the + marked ones the power regionals? 

[packwick]

On 11/16/2025 at 8:15 PM, LeanderMomma said:

I have noticed.  😭

But I get it.  

lol i know. it's too much effort tho, esp when i know lots of other ppl are recording them. if i really had the time id go back and rip the hi cams for all the dvds/VHSs. time consuming.

1 hour ago, Tubalord11 said:

Super excited for this season!! Also, have they just not posted the super regionals yet or am I blind, couldn’t find the one in Coppell, might go back. @TWHSPercDad, any chance they are coming back?? 
 

Edit: okay so are the + marked ones the power regionals? 

think the late season one in Dfw is now at lake ridge hs. coppell's gym is amazing so kinda sad to see it not get used. 

all the ones marked w/ a + are double judge panel events. wgi decided to expand them this season which is nice, esp w/ the seeding process that uses regional scores and for the extra feedback.

[TWHSPercDad]

So, The Woodlands A and World Guard’s 2026 WGI Events look like this. 

Houston Regional — The Woodlands A

Austin Regional — The Woodlands World

San Antonio Regional — The Woodlands A and World (btw, first time at this regional  in ….. a long time).

WGI World Championship — The Woodlands World

 

 

 

[packwick]

19 minutes ago, TWHSPercDad said:

So, The Woodlands A and World Guard’s 2026 WGI Events look like this. 

Houston Regional — The Woodlands A

Austin Regional — The Woodlands World

San Antonio Regional — The Woodlands A and World (btw, first time at this regional  in ….. a long time).

WGI World Championship — The Woodlands World

 

 

 

love seeing the A guard at more than one wgi event for a change, curious if they'll ever fly em up to Dayton like some of the other guards do w/ their jvs.

would love to see the junior high sign up for a regional too if the staff can handle it. def been seeing more and more middle schools in wgi.

[TWHSPercDad]

7 hours ago, packwick said:

would love to see the junior high sign up for a regional too if the staff can handle it. def been seeing more and more middle schools in wgi.

My guess is that if the WGI Houston Regional was later in the season, McCullough JH Winterguard would be more likely to perform (may be a bit too early, IMO). 

[packwick]

steering committee has released the summary of their 2025 Dallas meeting.

https://www.wgi.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2025-CGSC-REPORT-FULL.pdf

some changes to scheduling procedures. most notable changes = restructuring of the world class sheets to remove both Box 6 (standard setting) and the box thirds in Box 5.

rationale = too hard to access videos of historical groups to make determination of standard setting + concerns about low scores in world class.

first reason i don't get, videos of the absolute best of all time in each caption are easily watchable by a judge on YT just before world class finals. other reason, gonna guess that's the IW instructors complaining about their scores the past couple yrs. my response to that?? design and perform better shows!!

[LeanderMomma]

On 11/26/2025 at 2:16 PM, packwick said:

gonna guess that's the IW instructors complaining about their scores the past couple yrs. my response to that?? design and perform better shows!!

🤣🤣

[Rubisco]

On 10/22/2025 at 11:23 PM, packwick said:

no wgi regionals for Emerson??? was gonna ask if they imploded but they're signed up for ntca. why no wgi??

Emerson has signed up for both of the DFW regionals. I'm unsure when that happened, but they're on the lists now.

They have definitely not "imploded", either. I just watched a video of their marching show. The guard was very impressive! I wish they were returning to Dayton, but I understand it's costly.

[packwick]

preseason thoughts

not gonna pretend i watched all the guards going to Dayton but of the ones from tx i did see this marching season, imma say the class standouts were Wylie, Tomball, friendswood, and Pearland. A, A, A, + Open.

friendswood back down in SA from SO intrigues me, like how Jordan did last yr. skills looked rock solidly A on the marching field, so maybe appropriate.

Wylie + Pearland guards i watched over and over in disbelief lol. pushing the top of the class imo.

sooo so much is gonna depend on the show design for these guards. woodlands for example has had the best guard on the marching field every year since at least 22 but has only once won gold at Dayton. reason?? design, design, design. also, overreaching w/ difficulty. also only rehearsing 8 hrs + others catching up, but that's a different conversation lol.

[packwick]

@TWHSPercDad or @WoodlandsMom4ever do u know who the guest choreographer is for tw this yr??

saw that the band now uses Samia Vanderkolff. dunno 'bout the guard side now that Seth is at M&G. know that Cyndi does a lot herself.

[TWHSPercDad]

5 hours ago, packwick said:

@TWHSPercDad or @WoodlandsMom4ever do u know who the guest choreographer is for tw this yr??

saw that the band now uses Samia Vanderkolff. dunno 'bout the guard side now that Seth is at M&G. know that Cyndi does a lot herself.

I’ll see what I can find out.
I will say that I was VERY impressed with Samia’s choreography this fall and her teaching interaction with the students. 

[packwick]

37 minutes ago, TWHSPercDad said:

I’ll see what I can find out.
I will say that I was VERY impressed with Samia’s choreography this fall and her teaching interaction with the students. 

see i wasn't sure if she had done it or if Seth did it before he left.

i really liked the choreo as well, esp in the ballad w/ the band members going down into the ground. really expressive, a clear shift in dynamics from the opening stuff. tricky to clean.

[Rubisco]

Wylie blew me away this marching season! I was shocked they didn't advance to State. But that's just how deep that area is.

I'm very much looking forward to whatever their guard does. I think they did the Cruella show last season. Placed 11th at Dayton.

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

On 12/4/2025 at 12:21 AM, TWHSPercDad said:

I’ll see what I can find out.
I will say that I was VERY impressed with Samia’s choreography this fall and her teaching interaction with the students. 

@twhspercdad is more “in the know” now than I am.  I’ve actually not even logged onto here since late November.  Just have been busy with other stuff.    
 

From what “I” knew when my daughter was in:

Marching the choreography ran through whoever was doing band choreography- and Cyndi would help fine tune it.   
 

Winter- Cyndi does most of it, but they would bring Seth in a few times through the season to help figure out spots that they felt they needed some help on.  I don’t know who they’ll use now for winter guard for that.  

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

On 12/5/2025 at 2:25 PM, Rubisco said:

Wylie blew me away this marching season! I was shocked they didn't advance to State. But that's just how deep that area is.

I'm very much looking forward to whatever their guard does. I think they did the Cruella show last season. Placed 11th at Dayton.

The Cruella show was fantastic last year! I got to see it in Dayton and loved it!