2023 WGI: The Slay All Day Thread

[Rubisco]

It's almost that time of (next) year again! This thread will be devoted to all things winter guard, and maybe even some winter percussion as well. All contributions are welcome! Hopefully this thread won't turn into a personal blog.

Texas will have INCREDIBLE representation on the color guard side of things at the WGI World Championships in April. Below is a list of all the current entries from Texas. There are a lot of them, including some new ones! It's going to be an amazing ride!

Scholastic A

Burleson Centennial HS
Clear Brook HS
Clear Creek HS
Coppell HS JV
Eastlake HS JV
Friendswood HS
Georgetown HS
Hebron HS
Klein Cain HS
Memorial HS
Mount Pleasant HS
Mount Pleasant HS JV A
Pebble Hills HS
Pine Tree HS
Rock Hill HS
Round Rock HS
Seven Lakes HS
Southlake Carroll HS
William B. Travis HS
Wylie East HS
Wylie HS

Independent A

ATX Winterguard
Eagle Mountain Independent
Sam Houston State

Scholastic Open

College Park HS
Coppell HS
Eastlake HS Varsity
James Bowie HS (Austin)
Klein Oak HS
Little Elm HS
McKinney HS
McNeil HS
Westlake HS (TX)
Winston Churchill HS

Independent Open

Black Gold Open
Glory Independent
ORIGINS Open
Redemption Guard
Undaunted

Scholastic World

Moe and Gene Johnson HS
The Woodlands HS

Independent World

Invictus
Mirage Performance Ensemble
ORIGINS
Third Coast Independent

[Rubisco]

Like last season, I encourage everyone to familiarize themselves with the overall judging process. WGI generously provides a lot of information about the behind-the-scenes scoring process. See: The Adjudication Manual. Much of this information is also applicable to the visual side of things in the marching band world, which I understand is a place of confusion for many!

Judging Overview:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rzMxKNXoUSs

Variety, Range, and Depth (Key Components of Vocabulary Scoring):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JVMXIkmJ_RA

Staging:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZXbo0d8PfM

Interrelationships and Ensemble Analysis:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PSb3kSNwS3Q

Programming:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UVJTrK3Pd7c

[Origin]

Great to see Coppell back! Some unfinished business there after missing finals last year. 

I didn’t know M&G Johnson was SW. I guess they self-promoted?

Also SO excited to see what The Woodlands does!

[packwick]

yaassss. slaaaaay. the return of the sport of the ga... errr, ARTS, i mean ARTS!

the 2023 wgi drinking game 4 those of us of age watching at home and not at risk of being expelled from a live event

drinking to guard tropes, drink whenever:

there's a full ensemble flag feature

the one boy in the guard does the difficult solo rifle toss(es)

you hear a saccharine pop ballad

you see a show with a theme that has anything to do with empowerment

u hear a voiceover 

the one girl who actually knows how to dance does 5 turns in a row and the audience screams wildly bc they can barely do a single turn

the guard lightly jazz runs to the edge of the floor to pick up other equipment usually while raising arms into 5th position and lowering them

the guard spells something on the floor

the guard makes a recognizable shape on the floor besides the basic geometric ones, say like a heart

there is a clear display of sassiness

ohhhh these r just a few. even so they'll be wheeling u out on a stretcher by the end of the A class.

not 4 kids, obviously

[packwick]

had trouble finding manual at wgi btw. search engine is ur friend.

https://wgi.org/dashboard/2023-wgi-color-guard-adjudication-manual-rulebook/

[LeanderMomma]

11 hours ago, packwick said:

yaassss. slaaaaay. the return of the sport of the ga... errr, ARTS, i mean ARTS!

🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

[LeanderMomma]

That list of Texas guards headed to Dayton for WGI Worlds in April is quite exciting!!  Have we EVER seen even close to this many Texas groups at Worlds before?!  I’m planning on being there for it and it looks like I sure picked the best year to do so!!

[slowbrass]

Really excited to see Hebron’s guard continue to take steps forward,

[Zil]

Just curious and willing to learn...

What are the different classifications? (ie. Scholastic A, Independent A, etc) do the schools choose which classification to enter? 

[Rubisco]

11 hours ago, LeanderMomma said:

That list of Texas guards headed to Dayton for WGI Worlds in April is quite exciting!!  Have we EVER seen even close to this many Texas groups at Worlds before?!  I’m planning on being there for it and it looks like I sure picked the best year to do so!!

I'm not sure. It's harder to check now that the older results have been removed from the main WGI site!

5 hours ago, Zil said:

Just curious and willing to learn...

What are the different classifications? (ie. Scholastic A, Independent A, etc) do the schools choose which classification to enter? 

Regional A = beginner; A = intermediate; Open = intermediate to some advanced; World = advanced/virtuosic to standard setting.

Schools typically start out in regional A or A and get promoted at the end of the season if they place within the top few groups in their class at the World Championships. The Steering Committee, which reviews videos of the top few guards at each regional, can also promote a unit into a higher class midseason if they think the unit is misclassed -- really to maintain the integrity of the competition within the class. Individual units can choose to self-promote as well, but they'll typically choose the class in which they'll have the best chance of achieving success. Also, there are minimum cutoff scores to make finals at regionals/worlds in the open and world classes to maintain a baseline level of quality.

Scholastic = all members from the same school, i.e. high schools; Independent = not all from the same school, typically older -- think college age and beyond. Judges understand that Independent guard members are typically more physically developed. Hence why they compete against each other and not the Scholastics!

Independent World is the tippy top and has a separate paradigm the judges use when rating the units.

[Rubisco]

23 hours ago, packwick said:

the 2023 wgi drinking game 4 those of us of age watching at home and not at risk of being expelled from a live event

drinking to guard tropes, drink whenever:

I have one to add for this season. Drink whenever you hear Deep in the Heart of Texas. That'll be at least a few per Texas guard. 

[Zil]

16 hours ago, Rubisco said:

Regional A = beginner; A = intermediate; Open = intermediate to some advanced; World = advanced/virtuosic to standard setting.

Schools typically start out in regional A or A and get promoted at the end of the season if they place within the top few groups in their class at the World Championships. The Steering Committee, which reviews videos of the top few guards at each regional, can also promote a unit into a higher class midseason if they think the unit is misclassed -- really to maintain the integrity of the competition within the class. Individual units can choose to self-promote as well, but they'll typically choose the class in which they'll have the best chance of achieving success. Also, there are minimum cutoff scores to make finals at regionals/worlds in the open and world classes to maintain a baseline level of quality.

Scholastic = all members from the same school, i.e. high schools; Independent = not all from the same school, typically older -- think college age and beyond. Judges understand that Independent guard members are typically more physically developed. Hence why they compete against each other and not the Scholastics!

Independent World is the tippy top and has a separate paradigm the judges use when rating the units.

Thank you! This is very helpful.

So I take it, M&G Johnson and The Woodlands have been involved with WGI for awhile (and have been excelling at it)? Is that why they are already at World? That's awesome.

Are the competitions streamed? Any "must watch" performance vids on youtube that you would recommend? 

[Rubisco]

5 hours ago, Zil said:

Thank you! This is very helpful.

So I take it, M&G Johnson and The Woodlands have been involved with WGI for awhile (and have been excelling at it)? Is that why they are already at World? That's awesome.

Are the competitions streamed? Any "must watch" performance vids on youtube that you would recommend? 

Moe and Gene Johnson is actually only a few years old. They must just have really great instructional and design staff, as well as fully committed kids. Despite being a young program, they placed an amazing 6th last year in the Open class at the World Championships. Typically, only the top 3 are promoted to World class, but Moe and Gene Johnson appears to have self-promoted for this upcoming season. Honestly, this may be the perfect time to self-promote, given a weakened post-pandemic SW class. James Bowie self-promoted to World class in 2016 and had an amazing season, although it was hard for them to maintain that quality and they dropped in placement each year after. The 8 hour rule and lack of great guard feeder programs probably explains most of that.

TWHS has been around for decades in various classes. They were the first Texas scholastic program to win a gold medal in 2004, when they won in the Open class, where they still hold the record score. They didn't excel in the World class, however, and bounced around the classes, settling back in the A class, until they were promoted midseason by the Steering Committee two seasons in a row 2015-2016, I believe, with the arrival of the current director. Not sure, I'd have to look that up.

Only a very small number of guards have been able to maintain World class quality over the years. These are legacy programs like Miamisburg, Northview, Arcadia, Center Grove, Avon, and Carmel. The well-oiled machines.

FloMarching will be streaming a handful of events for WGI this season, and I think some Texas Circuit guard contests as well, although those ones may not be listed yet.

For "must watch" guards of the past, I would just go over to the WGI site and look at the historical scores and try finding some of those top finalists on YouTube. You'll get a sense of what the top of each class looks like pretty quickly.

[packwick]

do we think palm desert charter middle school places in the top 5 in A this year and gets promoted to open? that would be insaaane.

[J-Mike16]

29 minutes ago, packwick said:

do we think palm desert charter middle school places in the top 5 in A this year and gets promoted to open? that would be insaaane.

Ima say yes!!!! I love that program so much

[Rubisco]

We're less than a month away from the start of the season! Both NTCA and TCGC have local shows starting on January 21st. Those of us who are able to attend will be able to get a first look at some (likely) unfinished shows. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll be getting any of these local contests streamed on FloMarching this year. I don't see anything listed on Flo's schedule, except for the end of the season NTCA championships.

I've updated the World Championship attendance list. Ether Independent appears to have withdrawn from Independent A. They're a new group, and I suspect funding and recruitment issues may have played a role, based on some social media posts. On the flip side, Black Gold is returning in the Independent Open class, so that's exciting.

[Rubisco]

Here are some Texas Guards to Watch Out For at the World Championships this season in Scholastic A and Open. Note that this is pretty much purely based on the results from last year and aren't necessarily an indication of who will end up on top this season.

Friendswood HS in Scholastic A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGYEFlMXxFc

Last year's show, The Girl With The Weight of the World in Her Hands, ended up 6th in finals in Scholastic A at the World Championships. All the units ahead of them have been promoted into Open class for this season. With this semis performance, they were 4th, and very, very close to the top 3. I think half of the judges had them in the top 3, including a couple first places. I personally would have had them in the top 3. This was a fantastic performance, with beautiful staging and set design. Unfortunately, they had a somewhat rough run in finals, hence the drop in placement. Pre-COVID, this group was in the Open class, and has been in the World class in the past.

Hebron HS in Scholastic A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLMtYclRdpI

This was a fun, fizzy production from a guard that seems to improve every year. They were 2nd to Friendswood at the late WGI Dallas Regional (previously known as the Southwest Power Regional). I think they'll be a strong contender for finals this year. They looked very good on the marching field last fall. Apparently this performance earned them a gold medal at the NTCA championships, although I do see that they were 2nd to Rock Hill in the recap...

Rock Hill HS in Scholastic A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbmAFQt8-j8

which brings us to Rock Hill! They're also attending the World Championships this season. How fortunate we are to have such great representation. The school opened in 2020, and look where they are already! They were turning some heads this marching season, as I recall.

Seven Lakes HS in Scholastic A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mS0kWjDp9M

Now here's a show that's a bit risqué. The opening dancer is absolutely fabulous. If only most guards had most of their members moving that well! Seven Lakes had a somewhat slow start to the season, placing 8th at WGI Houston. But they ended up placing 2nd and breaking a score of 90 in finals at WGI Atlanta. They even beat a couple of guards that went on to make finals at the World Championships. They'll be in the mix this year. Pre-COVID, this guard was in the Open class.

Southlake Carroll HS in Scholastic A

I can't find a video for this one. It was a Barbra Streisand show. SLC was only a few places outside of finals at the World Championships last year. They're coming off their first BOA Grand National Finals performance. Hopefully they can keep up the momentum.

McNeil HS in Scholastic Open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn0lQc2iy-E

McNeil was a comfortable 3rd place at the late WGI Dallas regional, behind Independence HS and Marcus HS. They were the TCGC State Silver medalists in the Open class, losing to Moe and Gene Johnson. In 2019, this guard placed 4th in the Open class at the WGI World Championships, so they know what it takes to do extremely well in this class.

Coppell HS in Scholastic Open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVTEiC7zjNw

This show was such a blast last season, an immediate crowd favorite. They brought some high energy, James Logan-style fun. Coppell ended up 3 places outside of finals in Scholastic Open at the World Championships. I think with a cleaner, more uniform performance and some clearer staging, they'll be in finals this year. I was impressed by what I saw from them on the marching field last fall. Plus, I know that their director is the CGT Dallas/Denton founder/director. This team knows what they're doing!

[JazzRun]

On 1/2/2023 at 10:21 PM, Rubisco said:

Here are some Texas Guards to Watch Out For at the World Championships this season in Scholastic A and Open. Note that this is pretty much purely based on the results from last year and aren't necessarily an indication of who will end up on top this season.

Friendswood HS in Scholastic A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGYEFlMXxFc

Last year's show, The Girl With The Weight of the World in Her Hands, ended up 6th in finals in Scholastic A at the World Championships. All the units ahead of them have been promoted into Open class for this season. With this semis performance, they were 4th, and very, very close to the top 3. I think half of the judges had them in the top 3, including a couple first places. I personally would have had them in the top 3. This was a fantastic performance, with beautiful staging and set design. Unfortunately, they had a somewhat rough run in finals, hence the drop in placement. Pre-COVID, this group was in the Open class, and has been in the World class in the past.

Hebron HS in Scholastic A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLMtYclRdpI

This was a fun, fizzy production from a guard that seems to improve every year. They were 2nd to Friendswood at the late WGI Dallas Regional (previously known as the Southwest Power Regional). I think they'll be a strong contender for finals this year. They looked very good on the marching field last fall. Apparently this performance earned them a gold medal at the NTCA championships, although I do see that they were 2nd to Rock Hill in the recap...

Rock Hill HS in Scholastic A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbmAFQt8-j8

which brings us to Rock Hill! They're also attending the World Championships this season. How fortunate we are to have such great representation. The school opened in 2020, and look where they are already! They were turning some heads this marching season, as I recall.

Seven Lakes HS in Scholastic A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mS0kWjDp9M

Now here's a show that's a bit risqué. The opening dancer is absolutely fabulous. If only most guards had most of their members moving that well! Seven Lakes had a somewhat slow start to the season, placing 8th at WGI Houston. But they ended up placing 2nd and breaking a score of 90 in finals at WGI Atlanta. They even beat a couple of guards that went on to make finals at the World Championships. They'll be in the mix this year. Pre-COVID, this guard was in the Open class.

Southlake Carroll HS in Scholastic A

I can't find a video for this one. It was a Barbra Streisand show. SLC was only a few places outside of finals at the World Championships last year. They're coming off their first BOA Grand National Finals performance. Hopefully they can keep up the momentum.

McNeil HS in Scholastic Open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn0lQc2iy-E

McNeil was a comfortable 3rd place at the late WGI Dallas regional, behind Independence HS and Marcus HS. They were the TCGC State Silver medalists in the Open class, losing to Moe and Gene Johnson. In 2019, this guard placed 4th in the Open class at the WGI World Championships, so they know what it takes to do extremely well in this class.

Coppell HS in Scholastic Open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVTEiC7zjNw

This show was such a blast last season, an immediate crowd favorite. They brought some high energy, James Logan-style fun. Coppell ended up 3 places outside of finals in Scholastic Open at the World Championships. I think with a cleaner, more uniform performance and some clearer staging, they'll be in finals this year. I was impressed by what I saw from them on the marching field last fall. Plus, I know that their director is the CGT Dallas/Denton founder/director. This team knows what they're doing!

Thanks for posting these! Those yellow “jacks” props in Coppell’s show remind me of Clovis West, CA & the creative genius of Danielle Kline circa 1990 (totally dating myself!)

 

[Rubisco]

On 1/4/2023 at 9:31 AM, JazzRun said:

Thanks for posting these! Those yellow “jacks” props in Coppell’s show remind me of Clovis West, CA & the creative genius of Danielle Kline circa 1990 (totally dating myself!)

 

Love it! It's like they asked themselves, "How many different kinds of flags can we bring to the floor?" The answer? ALL of them.

[Rubisco]

I'm not seeing many guard updates on Instagram. I went through my "ones to watch" list. Friendswood has a nice audition video, but I'm not sure the choreo or music are related to what they're actually doing this winter.

Mirage Performance Ensemble (in Independent World) is doing The Only Way Out is Through, unless that's just some random statement on their Insta. Looks like a show title! 😂 The new Independent World from Houston, Third Coast Independent, is doing a show called The Creative Space. I'm intrigued! Their staging designer is Rick Subel, who designs for Paramount and Carolina Crown, so that aspect of the show should be solid. Now I'm just wondering what level the performers will be at. 🤔

TWHS posted a brief video of their A and World guards from a mid-December camp. They'll both be top threats in their respective classes. The A guard is attempting some above-class skills for sure. The World guard is already looking pretty confident. They've got white boxes on dollies that they're standing up on and almost certainly pushing and pulling around the floor. A show about moving? Making deliveries? Emotional baggage? The possibilities are endless! 😂

[Rubisco]

Congrats to the Cy-Woods guard on their victory in the Scholastic National A class at TCGC Willis! Scoring a 72+ at the first contest of the season is very impressive. Alas, I think the only WGI contest they're attending is Austin.

The Sam Houston State University winter guard also achieved a 70+ in Independent A. Both of these units are in the driver's seat right now.

[LeanderMomma]

Two phenomenal contests are happening tomorrow. TCGC Dripping Springs and TCGC Dawson. I’m so frustrated that I can’t be there and even more frustrated that FloMarching isn’t covering either one. Come on TCGC, get with the 21st century and stream these things!!!

Both of these contests have some amazing lineups, and tomorrow is the day we finally get to hear what the Woodlands World class theme will be!  Their JV Scholastic A group just announced their theme is Avalanche. 

Let’s get this party started!!!

[Rubisco]

Yep! Several other states will also have their season premieres this Saturday, including both Florida circuits and MEPA.

Keep your eyes peeled for YouTube videos! 

[Rubisco]

A few of the scholastic worlds have posted show titles.

Kiski Area is doing Beware the Poisoned Poppy. For those who don't know, poppies are very pretty, but some are also poisonous to the touch. 

Fishers is doing A Light in the Attic. I'm assuming it's inspired by the poetry book of Shel Silverstein.

West Broward is doing Mirosalia. It looks like a combo of two words. I'm thinking the first half refers to surrealist painter Joan Miro. Not sure about the other half. Moths?

The Woodlands World Relocation Services presents How To: MOVE. "Let us move you!" So it is about moving! Cute. I'm sure it'll be about moving in more ways than one.

Tarpon Springs seems like they're going to do live music again. I see a group of boys in the top right corner of a picture of their world guard. One is holding a saxophone. 🤔

[Rubisco]

Carmel's world guard is doing Lean on Me. I'm assuming the soundtrack includes the Bill Withers song. This one will probably be a bit more emotional than last year, at least for a general audience. Townsend and Gaines still designing for them.