The Gift of Winterguard: An Unexpected and Awesome Journey

Winterguard has been my passion for nearly three decades. Little did I know at the time that my humble beginnings as a student performer would lead me into a richly fulfilling career as an educator, designer, and competition judge, plus ‘Winterguard Mom’! Before discovering winterguard, I was a dedicated baton twirler who loved to toss things, spin things, and dance around. But when my baton program unexpectedly moved away, I was eagerly searching for a new creative outlet. And boy did I find one when I started at Ketterlinus Middle School, who was then home to the Coast One Cadets, a highly popular winterguard program (under the direction of Jay Steele). I said to myself, “I can do this, I can spin things!”, and with this adventurous spirit I entered into the incredible world of the marching arts.

At that time, winterguard was part of the ‘wheel’, so everyone in my grade spent six weeks learning band and winterguard. At the time, it was a very large club where cultivation started early in the 6th grade, then building skills as 7th graders, and ultimately participating in competitions as 8th grade students. In a way, this approach taught us students the basics and techniques while getting excited about the pageantry. It prepared us very well for eventually competing at the high school level. Coast One Cadets was a feeder program for the Coast One Winterguard program, at St. Augustine High School. In 8th grade, I auditioned and made the top Coast One Cadet team (there were two), and I still recall my first show which involved learning multiple tunes for a “Beatles Tribute Medley”.

What drew me to commit myself to long rehearsals, wearing wild costumes, and contorting my body in every direction with flying objects to a beat in front of large crowds? Simple answer. I loved performing and being part of an ensemble, something that the baton discipline couldn’t offer me as a solo activity. Even more attractive, being in winterguard meant multiple performances throughout the season and more opportunities for me to make friends. From the start, I took my newfound passion seriously and practiced it rigorously. But it was an end of year assignment to create my own winterguard show that became the spark that lit my future career. I can still see every detail that went into my first show creation with music I chose from the 80’s cult favorite, New Order, to costume design modeled by my barbie dolls and of course, lots of props! And did my winterguard director take notice. While not a formal dancer, I’ve always had an interest in the choreography side of things and figuring out effects in shows. I would also analyze and critique the costumes of other winterguards to see how I could improve upon them. In baton, I wasn’t permitted to select the music, but with winterguard everything from the music and costumes to the movement and sets are artistic choices that I could help influence. Winterguard also gave me the opportunity to perform the same show over and over, perfecting and seeing the entire production evolve and getting better and better.  I was told so many times, you’re ‘too tall’ for dance and gymnastics. I quickly realized that winterguard was my perfect soul match - it was tailor made to my natural talents and interests. I felt like I’d won the lottery!

When I entered the high school level it was an even bigger deal.  There were two winterguard teams and no guarantee of making either one. The St. Augustine program was very popular with little to no turnover once a student secured a spot their freshman year. Marching band was an important precursor to the winterguard experience. Learning the larger show with the drum corps, band and percussion members gave me a wider perspective on a different stage that serves me to this day in my current job as a choreographer and costume designer. Under the direction of Jeff Dodd, I joined Coast One Winterguard and fell deeper in love with performing, inspired by the bold costumes that accompanied their shows. I learned about props and effects, why we would toss on certain parts of the music, or why we would catch on a specific count to create impact. I began analyzing everything that went into our show, plus what my peers and the people at the next level above me were doing. Like my previous 8th grade assignment, we were all encouraged to perform solos with our own 2.5-minute choreography. Not an easy task! When you are given choreography you just have to replicate it. But being tasked with writing something brand new and completely different and having it make sense with music is a big challenge. I took the early lessons of my 8th grade assignment and used that experience to elevate my craft to the next level. Every year presented a new and exciting challenge for me in both what I was being asked to deliver and the level of staff that was surrounding me and the rest of the program. Dance choreographers enabled us to become more comfortable with our bodies and incorporate more lower body movement to our shows. Artists like Cheryl Wimberly came in and completely changed our total view on what’s possible with the sweetest demeanor while instilling confidence– she could get us to do anything with a simple ‘let’s just try it’ approach. A practice I personally took onboard when I eventually became a winterguard instructor.

But here’s the real kicker. Jeff Dodd convinced me and many other of my fellow straight-A students to take ‘summer school’ so we could continue to spin, learn and improve. Cool, count me in - I love to spin things! But it was more than a continuation of what we had been doing in the regular year. You see, Jeff used the summer school opportunity to teach everyone about judging sheets and show compositions. We would watch old competitions together and discuss what we saw, how it was done, what went into the transition, along with what kind of point scale a judge would potentially give the performance. Jeff was teaching us the whole winterguard craft in a very accessible way, which really propelled me and my fellow performers forward. But the most impactful part of my student experience came from being able to learn through positive mentorship from Jeff, Jay and Cheryl. No yelling required, just respect that came from doing anything they asked us students to do. My love for winterguard continued after graduation for two additional years thanks to independent teams that had sprung up across Florida. I and eight of my friends spent our weekends performing with the Shaktai Performance Company, where my mentor Cheryl Wimberly was involved. I then got to work under many other talented directors, writers and technicians: Ron Comfort, John Williams, Danny Pfiefer and Shelba Waldron. Another key person in my journey is Randy Nelson. Randy mentored me over the decades and taught me the importance of watching floor perimeters while staging. Thanks to Randy's guidance and friendship, I was able to master seamless transitions! This just continued to give me new perspectives and approaches to the activity. 

Shortly after graduation, my winterguard career got a huge bump when Michelle Wilcox asked me to become the winterguard director for Gamble Rogers Middle school at just seventeen years old. I took a chance and began with fifteen kids who had never experienced a winterguard performance. I had to (1) teach them how to spin and dance, (2) pick a show, costuming, and put the music together, (3) put the drill out there and (4) keep the students confident, safe, and motivated, while convincing their parents to support them. The drill piece is way tougher than it looks. Most crowds are looking for the ‘big moments’ in a show, but I had a lot to learn about transitions, how to keep the eye trained on the right moving pieces. Within a year, I was invited to teach winterguard as an Adjunct Educator at Nease High School, where I had the incredible opportunity to transform a handful of newcomers into a multi-year award winning WGI program with my best friend and SAHS Alum Robby DuFresne. I credit a big chunk of my ability to do this at a young age to the formative training and mentorship I received under Jeff Dodd while a member of Coast One Winterguard. Being in a program that gave me direct hands-on learning experiences was fundamental to my ultimate success in the field. 

Building the shows, working with the kids, and creating vibrant, positive life experiences even when life got really challenging, meant the world to me. Winterguard was my and my students’ place to go to get a break from tough things, we could leave it all at the door and just make beautiful things together. Kids stuck around for hours because it just felt good to be at rehearsal, they were happy there. Ultimately, my winterguard program at Nease took a different turn that would split the ensemble up with the opening of Bartram Trail High School. Fortunately, the wise principals at both schools agreed to operate a joint independent winterguard program called Northeast Independent (NEI) to help with the transition, which I ended up running for nearly a decade with Robby DuFresne.  This experience led to more doors opening for me. I kept getting called in to build up fledgling programs in the area and took them on another exciting run to worlds at WGI.

Throughout my winterguard experiences, I’ve always been a part of Florida Federation of Color Guard Circuit (FFCC). I met and connected with so many awesome people through their events. At one competition final, Algy Uniforms & Costumes approached me with an invitation to join them, which ultimately gave me year-round opportunities to program shows. I also started judging performances at competitions, which was another interesting transition for me. It took me some time to understand that someone has to be first and someone has to be last. You can have incredible performances across the board, but you still have to rank it. 

Now so much time has passed and I really enjoy seeing my former students go on to teach and direct their own programs. It’s a very generational activity, which is even wilder when your own child starts to get involved under someone else’s direction. You see really young kids that started off just running around the back of the gym, become true performers.

If you have the opportunity to participate in a winterguard program - take it! You won’t regret a moment of it. You’ll learn to spin things, make friends for life and gain a confidence that can take you anywhere whether it's on the field or in the stands. I’ll end my story with a three pieces of advice that have served me well over the years:

Take Risks -  design some of the shows yourself. Establish your own trends, keep trying things and see how it goes. Figure out how you can dye silks, move bodies, and create simple effects no one has seen before. Or remix what you’ve previously been given.

Be Committed – if you sign up you must complete the season. Show up to all the rehearsals. Unlike typical sports activities where you can rely on just a few players at a time, when you’re missing a winterguard member, you never complete the picture. And when a performer joins a winterguard program, the entire family joins too. Parents and guardians need to be present – especially for the bigger events which means a lot to their students. Helping with the sets or staffing the hydration stations is awesome. But what matters most is staying positive and motivating them to go to rehearsals no matter what. 

Own It - avoid the temptation to blame others if your child’s feelings are hurt. Encourage them to analyze the situation with you and identify opportunities to look at the situation differently. They didn’t get the solo – this time. Encourage your child to look at the person who did get picked for the solo and invite them to learn from that individual’s performance and approach. Suggest they look around to see what’s interesting and different about another performer and go to that person and ask them about it. Remind them that sometimes it’s their job to be the supporting team member, that we all have roles to play in the ensemble (important life lesson!). And that you have to continuously work your way up behind others on the experience ladder who have been doing it for a while and have been conditioned to handle certain things in front of a crowd (even more important life lesson!). But also keep in mind that the show will never be the same without you (the ultimate life lesson!).

Focus on the craft, not the trophies. Give yourself time to develop and grow. You’ll be grateful you did!

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