Focus On: Gates Chili High School
January 13, 2010
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The Gates Chili High School Varsity Winter Guard has a rich history with WGI Sport of the Arts. About twenty years ago, Director Dick Hoppe took over the fledgling program, and taught and designed until hiring Todd Diamond in 1997, who continues to head the design team at GCHS. The guard made Scholastic A Class Finals for several years starting in 1998 until capturing the gold medal in 2006. The guard then spent three years in Scholastic Open, and most recently has been promoted to the World Class for the 2010 season.
This year’s show is titled “A Celebration of Light”, performed to the music of Sigur Ros, and is inspired by the beauty and intensity of the Aurora Borealis. The guard will be competing at the Pittsburgh, Dayton, Rochester, and South Brunswick WGI Regional contests, and of course in the World Championship contest in Dayton as well as sponsoring the WGI Rochester Regional Contest.
Returning to the floor this season, with essentially the same staff as the last few years, GCHS is excited to produce another Todd Diamond design with assistance by Kevin McLoud and Linda Maciulis, and including choreography by Patty Flowerday. Former CGHS choreographer, Sarah Cole has moved on to spend full time with her own guard, Patriots IO.
Gates Chili is unique in the world of scholastic guards. Even though the members are all students at Gates Chili High School and perform with the school’s marching band who also performs on a national level (They just got back from the Citrus Bowl and Disney World!), the Gates Chili Color Guard Parents Inc., assumes full financial responsibility for the program.
The guard also sponsors (along with Patriots) the GCP JV and JR guards, which start students as young as fourth grade. The Varsity guard practices and performs about 50 weeks a year, including guard season, spring and summer parades, and fall field band. In addition to the WGI commitments, the guard competes in the North East Color Guard Circuit, and is a perennial class winner there.
Every graduating member starts college with a substantial scholarship award, and every other year, those members and parents who desire to do so take an educational trip overseas. They have visited England, Scotland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, and Austria and will be visiting Italy this year.
None of the above could have been accomplished without the financial and physical support of the parents, all have whom have worked many, many bingo games, pulled and folded many floors, loaded them under many buses, and driven them to many practices on our truck. Lastly, we are proud of our students, all of whom are college bound scholar-athletes who maintain very high GPA’s while doing guard, working outside jobs, and seemingly spending seventeen hours a day on Facebook!
