Guardarchives

Because this is no longer an official site for MASH Colorguard, the WGI and KIDA video's are deleted.

Pa House Honors SO/Blue & SA/White & Staff

Representative Nailor sponsored a Congratulatory Citation for the SO & SA Guards this Spring (Copies and Photographs below). He had sponsored a similar Citation for the Marching Band this past fall. These are unique and sparingly issued honors, and his continued interest in and support of our music programs is unique and should be greatly appreciated. If you have a chance to thank him for his support, please take the opportunity.

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Gray Guard 2007 Video from Dayton

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MASH Instructor/Friend Naoko featured in WGI Publication

Sentinel Article WGI World Championships & KIDA Champs web version

Winterguard Banquet & WGI Championships Picture Galleries

WGI does not permit performance pictures to be posted on public galleries, please do not repost WGI performance pictures

MASH SO Scores a 82.00 to Make Semi Finals

MASH SO Scores an 83.70 at Semi Finals

Moves up from 36th to 26th in Two Performances

Great job girls; we could not be more proud of you!

World Championships "Class Photo" 2007

Seeing Friends Do Well Is Highlight

(see MASH WGI Sentinel Article above for mention of Sitao Sixth Place finish...) Sitao Winterguard takes Sixth in Independant A

This Video is of Siteo IA in a non-WGI Exhibition performance at Mechanicsburg March 10, 2007

Schedule conflicts prevented pictures from Dayton, other competition pics remain posted below...

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From Mechanicsburg to Dayton 2007, It's a Long and Winding Road

By: Andrew Barbin (rewrite/updated 4/24/07)

It started before "Flight" got off the ground, and long before the Mechanicsburg Wildcat Marching Band marched to another TOB ACC Group III Championship. Todd Marcocci made the long commute to Mechanicsburg to stand under a blistering sun at Wildcat Band Camp, and to work out the design details of another elegant extravaganza. It was a long day. Maybe it was the freeze frame pause for a posed ahhhh at the open, or maybe it was the swirling swing flags depicting the storms on Jupiter. Something must have snapped. Driving home late that night, Todd was screening potential show music. It's the kind of the thing Todd does to unwind after a fifteen hour day.... Suddenly, the music he was listening to evoked images of a metal shop with pounding drill presses, grinding gears and metal shavings. Now, most people hearing music that evoked such images would lunge for the button to change the track; but not Todd. For Todd, driving home after a long day at Band Camp, it was an escape - an exit ramp from a seemingly unending highway of "pretty" shows. From a flash image of a metal shop to the outline of a Scholastic Open show. Gear pattern and metal colored flags, spiraling flag work mirroring spiral shaving props, three dimensional costumes that make the performer a moving metal shaving, and turntable gears to allow platforms to feature unique work and exchanges. It was there, sprung like Minerva in full armor from Zeus' thigh. All he had to do was convince Kristy and the rest of the team to join him on this detour. The Templins trust Todd, and have faith in the instructional staff's ability to materialize his visions. Todd has earned a national reputation planning major televised parades and event extravaganzas, and has designed and choreographed countless memorable marching and winterguard shows. He was inducted this past weekend into the KIDA Hall of Fame. Even so, it could not have been an easy sell. Kristy and the rest of the team have done well with elegance. Timing, however, is everything. The unexpected elevation of the MASH Winterguard from SA to SO after their Eighth Place finish at SA Finals in Dayton accelerated the "five year plan." Given their competitive natures, everyone involved in the program knew that something dramatic would be planned for the plunge into SO competition. Little did the guard know how dramatic the changes were that awaited the end of outdoor season in November. The fall show certainly gave no indication. The fall show "Flight" was a continuation of the Cecile B. Damille style grad productions that are a Templin/Marcocci production trademark, though the 40 foot stage and 43 guard performers were over the top even by their usual standards. The costumes work and music were typically elegant and engaging. With Band Director Dane Hildebrand drilling the Band to marching and music perfection, the production earned a second consecutive Tournament of Bands Atlantic Coast Championship, as well as High Music, High Visual, High Auxiliary and High Percussion honors. With another success using the elegant style, it wasn't broke and there was no reason to think that there was anything to fix.... In hind sight though, there were a few signs, like all the flag girls who suddenly were redirected to rifle, and practice on rifle that was disproportionate to the needs of the current show. Maybe we should have known... Unquestionably, this year's program is a flight from the elegance of "Winterbirds" to a three dimensional, avant guard gear shift with "Shavings." While the original music score was edgy enough, it did not really capture the full scope of the change until the metal shop sound effects were added for the Redland Show, the week before Championships….. Because it is a Templin/Marcocci production, you can count on three things...the work will change substantively each week; the costumes will evolve dramatically, and props will multiply like rabbits until the final show at WGI Championships. While others attempt to adjust and perfect a show throughout a competition season, Mechanicsburg takes a dynamic creation/recreation approach, which involves both risk and reward. Unlike other circuits, KIDA gets a relatively late start. Our outdoor season runs through ACC Championships in early November. The MASH Winterguard season is further delayed by the fact that the Mechanicsburg Winterguard is a regular featured performer with West Chester University in the opening and closing of the annual ABC/Boscov’s televised Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade (which Todd Marcocci produces). While it is a great experience for the members chosen to participate, it means a later start than most. Placement/tryouts at the tail end of November were the wake up call. The excuse was plausible enough; the program had grown from a dozen girls a few years back to over 60. The idea of a two day placement clinic, to determine which girls should be assigned to which of the four guards which would be performing this season did not seem all that unusual, until the tryout began. Todd came in and demonstrated the "tryout" rifle work, even Rich flinched. Check the photo gallery, if Todd was sweating like that, how do you think the girls felt? The first day ended with all but the most jaded veterans wondering what their fate would be. Several younger SA members from the prior year (who had gone to Dayton as Eigth Graders) wondered if their day in the sun had past, and they would be left behind. With work even the most veteran members described as insane, there was good cause for concern. Dance, flag and saber work were only slightly less insane. On the second day, the presence of "tryout judges" from outside the program added that extra degree of pressure that takes the competitor either to peak performance, or the brink of breakdown. The fact that Danni announced she was taking a season off, added to both the tension and drama. However, when the dust settled, the veteran SA members had all moved on to the SO guard, with one addition. From there, it just got crazier. Tryouts were a walk in the park compared to the boot camp which followed. While the Mechanicsburg instructional staff care deeply for the girls, they are not renowned for gentleness or sugar coating their impressions early in the season. With the advance to SO competition, even those previously counted on for a kind word on a hard day, were more likely to be the ones holding feet to the fire. And it stayed that way through December, January, February and March. Each week, new and more difficult elements were added. There were new challenges and new pressures. Traditionally, Mechanicsburg competes in KIDA and eases its way into competition with the Exhibition performance at Central Dauphin East in late January. It is not uncommon for units to come to CDE with less than half a show, and there is no scoring…. For a change of pace, Kristy and company decided to take a tour of the local Circuits, starting with a head to head with South Brunswick SO in January at the Hartboro MAIN Circuit Competition. South Brunswick had a finished and polished show, while MASH presented its work in progress with one of five turntables in prototype stage, completed in time for one practice. The pattern was repeated in February for the WGI competition at South Brunswick, where the remaining turn tables were finally ready the Thursday before the show, and the work on the turntables themselves was weeks from final stage. There had been hope of a real test of the majority of the show at the WGI RI Power Regional St. Patrick's day; but the weather conspired against us and we were snowed out. If you have watched the video's of the various shows on this site, you have seen the show evolve. If you think the evolution is over because we have passed through the gauntlet of KIDA Circuit Championships, you are mistaken. Five new girls were added to the show the week before championships. That meant double duty for them at Red Land and championships as they remained key performers in the SA/White Guard show while they learned new supporting roles in the SO/Blue Guard show. Six major front props were added at KIDA Championships, while four more major back props were held back. Mechainsburg managed a win at Red Land despite 3 full points worth of line penaltioes unde KIDA's restrictive Rules designed for tight gymnasiums. Use of the full WGI show props for the KIDA Championships would simply have been, imprudent. It may sound cliché, but if you do not see the Mechanicsburg show in Dayton, you will not have seen the Mechanicsburg show. The double duty girls were rewarded with double Gold, each left KIDA Championships with a gold medal for both Blue and White guard divisions. While the changes from here to Dayton will be less dramatic than those from South Brunswick to KIDA Championships, there will certainly be changes and refinements. That is the nature of the Mechanicsburg program; for better or worse, it is not done until it is done for the last time in Dayton. If that make's it harder to place us in the pre-Championship WGI handicapping, so be it. We were ranked 13th to 18th last year going into WGI Championships, when we finished 8th; and we did not have a snow out of our second WGI show last year. The only rankings that really matter are the final ones. For the MASH SO girls, the past year has been, in some sense, an adaptation of the Wizard of Oz. The 2006 KIDA season, was a rollercoaster for the four time defending Champs. Sharing music with their closest competitor and facing line penalties at every turn in restricted gym venues was trying. While no one came to put down our dog, the loss of the KIDA Crown by 2 tenths at Championships after having beaten them in prior competitions was heartbreaking; and there was some sense that (like Dorothy) we would be better off elsewhere. Earning a place in SA Finals in Dayton was like landing on top of the the Wicked Witch of the KIDA defeat. Dayton was a technicolor experiance with all the excitement of sepnding a day in Oz, particularly staying to watch the IA, IO and IW units, and assisting Light Brigade on and off the floor. With only two members graduating, and five members in eighth grade, all were looking forward to returning to Dayton and vying for medals at the 2007 SA Finals Competition.... Unfortunately, the great and Powerful Oz decided that before Mechanicsburg could return to Finals, MASH would have to undertake a new, unexpected and perilous journey, through SO division competition. (Please keep in mind, MASH appreciated the honor and the confidence in their program, but WGI doesn't usually reach down to 8th place to promote from SA to SO; and Mechanicsburg would not have complained if they had been left to compete in SA another season...). While WGI did not exactly write "Surrender Mechanicsburg" across the pages of Focus Magazine; the news of the unsought and unlooked for promotion was like a combination of being swept up in a tornado and shouted out of the audiance chamber of the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz. Like Dorothy, the MASH SO guard knew that they would have to go to the territory of their competition to complete the quest assigned by the Wizard. Ironically, rather than throwing water on the competitors; the skies poured down snow on us, postponing the climatic confrontation until Dayton. Like the winding Yellow Brick Road, Mechanicsburg's path to Dayton this year took twists and turns. Mechanicsburg traveled through several states and four different Circuits: from a MAIN event, to a KIDA preview show, off to an early WGI Regional, back to a KIDA competition, off to a TIA competition, and back for a home show, then being snowed out of the RI WGI Regional (you could almost hear the Wicked Witch cackling, "poppies, poppies; sleep my pretties). The KIDA competitions were exhilarating, with Mechanicsburg taking first not only in SO/Blue, but also in SA/White and Bronze at new Oxford and Red Land. Taking Gold in Blue and White and Silver in Bronze at Championships was altogether unprecedented, and ordinarily would be enough to satisfy the most demanding coaches; but it is not enough for the Mechanicsburg SO Guard, or its coaches. Winning each of its KIDA & TIA competitions, and winning back the KIDA Crown restored a sense of balance; but it was hardly to end of the journey or the goal of the process. Dayton may not be Kansas or the Emerald City; but in Winterguard, it is where fate is determined. One practice, and 5 days from today, SO Winterguard units from across the country have a date with their destiny. Like Dorothy in Oz, Mechanicsburg has found new friends, adventure and peril around every bend. With new work, new props and even new personnel added from week to week, their path to Dayton has not been a path for the faint of heart. In the end, like Dorothy, they have learned that getting back to where they want to be does not depend on any of the Scarecrows, Tinmen, Cowardly Lions, Glinda's, Oz's or the Wicked Witches that have crossed their paths. In the end, they learned that the only way anyone can ever have what they desire, is to find it within themselves; exactly where it was all along. Now close your eyes and click your heals together and repeat after me, "There's no place like Finals, there's no place like Finals, there's no place like Finals...." See you in Dayton. OK, so the dream ends and you wake up in Kansas (or Mechanicsburg) with the feeling that it was so much more than a dream; and it was. To make Semi Finals in the first year of SO competition was an accomplishment. To the Seniors thanks for the memories; to the rest, you've just begun to fight. A banquet, an encore, a break, and then outdoor....

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KIDA Championships MASH Galleries