Goshen High School hosts marching guard competition

Steve Wilson, Goshen News, Ind.
·4 min read

Feb. 19—GOSHEN — From Argos to Angola to Fort Wayne, Marching Guard teams descended on Goshen High School Saturday to showcase their dedication, talent and hard work.

"It's been a good turnout," GHS senior Isaias Lopez said as he waited to watch Goshen Winter Guard to perform shortly after 5 p.m. "I've been doing this (attending the events) for four years. The band's pretty great."

RESULTS

REGIONAL A CLASS ROUND 1

1 — Northrop 67.920

2 — Columbia City 62.740

3 — Adams Central 60.660

4 — DeKalb 60.660

5 — John Glenn 59.160

6 — Knox 58.380

7 — Warsaw 57.720

8 — Angola 54.900

9 — Bremen Emerald 54.620

REGIONAL A CLASS ROUND 2

1 — Maconaquah 70.960

2 — Concord 66.940

3 — East Noble 66.100

4 — Leo 64.400

5 — Homestead 60.560

6 — Jimtown 59.240

7 — Norwell Varsity 58.780

8 — Plymouth 57.160

9 — Northridge 54.220

CLASS A

1 — Goshen Varsity 75.880

2 — Elkhart Varsity 72.355

3 — NorthWood 70.120

4 — Snider 61.730

OPEN CLASS

1 — Penn 66.70

FESTIVAL CLASS

Gold: Goshen JV, Heritage, Mishawaka and Fairfield JV

Silver: Argos, New Haven, Jimtown JV, Norwell JV, Snider JV and Manchester

JR. CADET

Silver: Fairfield

CADET

Silver: Homestead Cadet and Jimtown Cadet

Bronze: Norwell Cadet

The event, the Goshen High School Indiana Color Guard Association Winter Guard Invitational, got underway at noon with the first performance, by the Argos Color Guard. A total of 39 performing groups were scheduled to take part, mostly from northern Indiana.

According to Wikipedia, color guards or flag corps are teams of performers who perform choreographed dances and routines with various equipment to enhance and interpret the music of a marching band or drum and bugle corps show.

After getting ready in a warmup room, teams from each school filed into the gym, one at a time, uniformed and ready to perform in precision.

Tom Cox and Josh Kaufman are GSH band directors.

"They award school shows and they are the event sponsors," Cox said about the IHSCGA. "We've run a good show and they award us a show based on how we do."

Cox said that the schools need to reapply each year, and are judged in the re-application process based on their facility, coordination and other factors.

"This helps raise funds for our program, which means we can charge our students less for marching band fees, color guard fees and others," he said.

GHS Band Boosters play an important role in the event, Cox added.

"We have great parent volunteers," he said.

Kaufman said that GHS is happy to host the event.

"We couldn't do it without the parents and the band boosters," Kaufman said. "We also have about 100 students that are helping out. Our custodians are busy helping out, especially this morning with a lot of extra work."

The "extra work" was in reference to Saturday morning's wintery weather, the impact of which was more pronounced downstate.

"The weather hasn't hurt us yet," Cox said. "There's another event down in Zionsville and we understand groups have pulled out of that one due to the weather."

Brian Benson, owner of Kokomo-based Awesome Air, an airbrushed T-shirt company, was working at the event with his wife Diana, one of a number of shows at which they work.

"We've been doing pretty good," he said. "Our daughter was in color guard, so we're just supporting the legacy. When you're in color guard, you're in color guard for life."

Alma Grevenstuck has worked helping Goshen Color Guard for the past six years, her daughters Andra and Marissa performing with varsity and JV, respectively.

"We have a really good crowd," she said. "We're blessed to see the community come together to support all these amazing, talented kiddos."

Of those attending, GHS Varsity Winter Guard, performing in Class A, finished first place in that class with a score of 75.880. JV, performing in Festival Class, earned a gold.

FAIRFIELD

In addition, Fairfield Varsity Winter Guard performed at WGI Regional at Avon High School in Indianapolis on Saturday and again at WGI Regional Finals Sunday.

To learn more about IHSCGA, visit them at www.ihscga.org.

Steve Wilson is news editor for The Goshen News. You can reach him at steve.wilson@goshennews.com.