Winter guard and indoor percussion take first in Madison
February 22, 2016
This past weekend Sparkman’s performing arts showed up and showed out at a local competition.
Bob Jones High School hosted the MadTown Indoor Throwdown, a competition for indoor percussions, winter guards and winds. Though the Southeastern Color Guard Circuit is made up of teams from all over Alabama, Tennessee and more, the MadTown competition is the only local one for Madison county and city teams.
Sparkman Indoor Percussion (SIP) debut their show entitled “Aurora: Ritual of Light”. This is SIP’s first year fully competing in the Scholastic Open classification. Kicking off a new season in a new class can be scary, but SIP rose to the occasion.
“We have a new mindset and new goals followed with more practices and stronger work ethic,” senior Mason Foster said.
SIP had a strong performance, earning them the first place trophy with a score of 80.35. They scored almost three points higher than the second-placing Bob Jones Indoor Drumline.
“It wasn’t the best performance, but we weren’t expecting it to be. Our goal now is to continue to perfect the show and keep reaching for greatness,” Foster said.
The SIP is looking forward to a rewarding season, traveling all over the southeast to compete.
“It’s going to be exciting traveling to compete in cool places, but at the same time we’re not making these trips as a vacation. We have a job, and that is to perform and win,” Foster said.
The MadTown Indoor Throwdown marked the third competition for the varsity Winter Guard, and the second competition for the junior varsity Winter Guard.
“We had two weeks to prepare for this competition. Our instructor has brought in extra help to prepare us for this completion. We’ve only ever had one person to write the show, so in bringing in this extra person it has helped us divide the work and clean the routine twice as fast,” senior Logan Whitten said.
Varsity performed their moving and empowering show entitled “Fragile”. The Varsity team placed first with a score of 69.08 in the Scholastic A classification, four points ahead of second-placing Chelsea High School Winter Guard.
“In this performance we had a lot of good things individually. The show wasn’t perfect but were still midseason, so things will definitely get better,” Whitten said.
The junior varsity Winter Guard placed fifth in the Scholastic AAA classification. The varsity and junior varsity have had a great season so far, and are looking forward to improving their shows.
“Having already scored as high as we have, it can only go up from here. The show value will become even more emotional. At the end of the day the placement doesn’t matter, it’s about the message that the show sends,” Whitten said.