Winter Colorguard

[cantgetenoughcorps]

I know this is going to sound dumb, but I am a little confused on WGI. Is this tied in with DCI? I have heard that some of the corps have winterguards, but that there are alot of high school winterguards. So if SCV has a winterguard, is this all the same kids that are members of SCV during the summer? And do they actually compete with all high school colorguards, or are there separate competitions?

I have thought about attending a competition if I can find one in the area sometime. I saw on the Cavies 04 tour dvd the 1980's winterguard show of Bond. Some cool stuff.

So which corps have winter guards? Which corps guards place the highest in these competitions? Any info is appreciated.

[G-Rott]

I know this is going to sound dumb, but I am a little confused on WGI. Is this tied in with DCI? I have heard that some of the corps have winterguards, but that there are alot of high school winterguards. So if SCV has a winterguard, is this all the same kids that are members of SCV during the summer? And do they actually compete with all high school colorguards, or are there separate competitions?

I have thought about attending a competition if I can find one in the area sometime. I saw on the Cavies 04 tour dvd the 1980's winterguard show of Bond. Some cool stuff.

So which corps have winter guards? Which corps guards place the highest in these competitions? Any info is appreciated.

www.wgi.org

should tell you all you need to know...championships are currently going on this week and weekend...

[Meaghatron]

WGI is an association made up of high school guards and independent guards. There are different classes of Scholastic (HS) and Independent guards. A few drum corps have independent guards, such as Phantom Regiment, SCV, and Blue Devils. Because practices are on the weekends (pretty much every weekend from October until April), the guards tend to made up of people within 3 or 4 hour driving distance. I don't know how many people from drum corps actually join their corps' winter guard. For example, I know that Phantom Regiment's Winter guard (Independent World Class) has a couple of Cavalier alumni.

Try looking around or asking questions in the Color Guard Planet forum. The people who post there are very helpful.

[cantgetenoughcorps]

Thanx for the info. I checked out the website of WGI. I only noticed about 5 of the colorguards that looked like they might have an affiliation with DCI corps. I did recognize alot of the high school bands in the area.

But basically if I understand correctly, the SCV colorguard is not the actual members of the corps from either last year, or the current year, but maybe a few with more members from the Santa Clara area?

[ouooga]

Thanx for the info. I checked out the website of WGI. I only noticed about 5 of the colorguards that looked like they might have an affiliation with DCI corps. I did recognize alot of the high school bands in the area.

But basically if I understand correctly, the SCV colorguard is not the actual members of the corps from either last year, or the current year, but maybe a few with more members from the Santa Clara area?

As far as I know, very few members do both. Winterguards are pretty focused on locals because of their seasons, so it's difficult for a member from another state to participate. At BK only a hand full of people were a part of Oracle at the time (now called Opus X), and at PC I don't think anyone was in the winterguard because I remember having rehearsal on the day of a WGI show, and no one was missing.

The staffs are what is mostly the same rather than the memberships, as far as I know.

[rut-roh]

Don't forget WGI also has a pretty extensive percussion circuit as well. Championships NEXT week in Dayton.

Edited April 11, 2008 by rut-roh

[byline]

As far as I know, WGI has always been a completely separate entity from DCI. I'm going mainly by the documentary on last year's DVDs, but it was started back in '77 when the late, great Stanley Knaub got the idea of having a separate organization and nationwide competitive system devoted exclusively to indoor guards. At that time, I believe that as part of individual/ensemble competition, there were guard competitions (I can't recall now if they were strictly individual or also included ensembles), but those were part of DCI championship week only, and did not have a nationwide touring schedule the way the corps shows did.

Stan called up a bunch of other big-name guard people, and they formed the WGI organization in '77. Then, in '78, WGI held its first-ever finals in Hoffman Estates, Ill. (I was there!) Since then, the touring schedule has grown to the point where there are regionals all over the country, and the finals for each event are really amazing in terms of the "festival" atmosphere. Rick and I were able to attend last year's World Class finals (both the Scholastic and Independent World Class competitions) in Dayton, and I was amazed at how polished the event has become in the 30 years since its inception.

There have been a number of winter guards affiliated with corps over the years: Phantom, Cavaliers and Guardsmen were among the earliest ones I recall. While they were an outgrowth of their corps, they were also something of an entity unto themselves. I can remember a fair number of complaints about the overlap between winter guard season and drum corps camps, and how winter guard supposedly "took away from" corps rehearsals during that time. By the same token, winter guard also really helped the guards fine-tune their skills to a stage uniquely suited to color guard. There are many other independent guards that either evolved out of corps that had folded or were completely separate units, formed solely for the purpose of having a winter guard.

There are separate classifications for the different units. When WGI started, there weren't that many high schools competing at that level. I could be remembering this wrong, but as I recall, Marcus Whitman was the only high school guard in finals that first year. And then Canandaigua Academy is the only other high school I remember making Open Class finals (the only other class was Class A). That continued until sometime in the mid-'80s, when WGI developed a Scholastic class, which then opened the door for lots of high school guards to begin competing. Here's an overview of WGI's history: What is WGI?

Edited April 11, 2008 by byline

[PRAng]

As far as I know, very few members do both. Winterguards are pretty focused on locals because of their seasons, so it's difficult for a member from another state to participate.

Another reason that very few of the DCI corps' winter guard members are in the corps is that Independent WGI guards have no age limit. So many of the top guards are made up of members who are too old to be a member of a DCI corps.

[ItsOnTheField]

Another reason that very few of the DCI corps' winter guard members are in the corps is that Independent WGI guards have no age limit. So many of the top guards are made up of members who are too old to be a member of a DCI corps.

The % of people marching that are older then the "age-out" is much less then you may think. It's not that many in reality, besides there are a few guards not in WGI world class that are sponsored by drum corps.

Edited April 15, 2008 by ItsOnTheField

[Feathers Up]

This was my first year following winterguard, and I must say it was pretty amazing. And I have to give props to Vanguard. I was truly moved by your performance at finals. I enjoyed just about everyone to be honest.