By Mikey McGuire
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in March 2023. Updated information appears where appropriate.
Few regions in the lower 48 states are farther from Dayton, OH than Southern California, a historical hotbed for indoor percussion. Ensembles around the country tackle logistical issues getting to Dayton for WGI World Championships, but groups traveling from as far as Southern California face unique challenges.
With the Southern California Percussion Alliance (SCPA) championships happening the week before worlds, groups have little time to get tractor-trailers loaded and on the more than 3,000 mile journey to Ohio.
Pulse/POW Percussion and Chino Hills HS are three Southern California-based ensembles that compete annually at WGI World Championships. John Mapes serves in administrative leadership for both Pulse ensembles and is the percussion director at Chino Hills HS. He is also a member of the WGI Percussion Steering Committee.
“There are two sides to it. The performers and staff have to fly or else it would take forever, and the equipment has to drive,” said Mapes. “We have our circuit championships the Saturday before, and the trucks have to leave that night. So we load up and send the driver out that night and hope we get our gear by Tuesday.”
Mapes is uniquely positioned as the director of a scholastic group and two independent groups that make the trip. Scholastic groups face two hurdles that independent groups don’t: School district policies and performer age. With Chino Hills, it’s no different.
“The district has to approve the trip, the kids have to have certain grades, and sometimes the teachers have to sign off on the kids to let them go, which can create some issues,” Mapes said. “It gets more expensive. Unlike the independent group, all the kids have to be on the same plane.”
But while there may be a few more hoops to jump through, Mapes thinks the trip might be a little easier for the scholastic group.
“There are a lot of parents involved with the high school and a full-time band director that help look after the kids,” Mapes said. “On the independent side, very few parents are involved, so it’s just a few directors and admin helping with both Pulse and POW. It’s all a part of one organization, so we are running both while we are down there and can get stretched pretty thin sometimes.”
Once the groups and the equipment are in Dayton, the challenges don’t stop.
“Jet lag is a big issue, and that is pretty brutal for the first few days. A 9 a.m. rehearsal in Ohio feels like a 6 a.m. for our kids, and that’s a big challenge,” Mapes said. “The independent kids tend to work through it, and they hang out all year, so they go to Dayton, and it’s not that different for them. The high school kids, on the other hand, like to stay up late, play video games, and eat bad food, like high schoolers tend to do. We have to remind them that it’s a business trip and we are there to compete. We run into little stuff like that people might not think of.”
The trip also plays a role in show design for groups that make the trip. Groups traveling long distances tend not to have many props because of the logistics involved in getting those props to Dayton in one tractor-trailer along with gear and instruments.
“The other problem we have is that we have to design with limitations in mind,” Mapes said. “If you want some big props, you have to decide if you are willing to take another truck and see how much that will cost. That happened with Pulse last year. We had some pretty big props, so we had to take two semis between Pulse and POW. Sometimes we can combine, and we had to rent space on the Chino Hills trailer.”
By far, the biggest challenge any group faces in making the trip is money. Every year costs increase to travel to championships, and with the added difficulties of distance, the cost only increases.
“The biggest challenge has always been financial, and it gets worse every year,” Mapes said. “Last year was insane. We saw the cost of the trip go up from the time the season started to the time we actually made the trip with inflation and gas prices. We had a budget, and then everything got more expensive.”
The financial limitations of the trip are the main reason only a handful of groups from California compete in Dayton every year. Despite having one of the largest circuit memberships in the country, only 15 groups made the trip from California in 2022; seven in Percussion Independent World, three in Percussion Independent Open, and five in Percussion Scholastic A.
In 2026, 26 ensembles from California competed at WGI Percussion World Championships, with 18 coming from cities in Southern California.
“Pretty much none of the scholastic groups go except the five in World Class [as of 2023],” Mapes said. “That puts a lot of pressure on Independent Open and A groups in the area because if you do not make the trip, you won’t get the members, but then you are stressed about money.”
The stress of travel is a hurdle every group in the country has to face when it comes time to close the season out in Dayton, and Southern California ensembles know that very well. Despite that, SoCal groups consistently make the trip worth the effort by competing for medals in both Scholastic and Independent World and putting on a great show for everyone who comes out to see them.
About the author:
Mikey McGuire has marched three seasons of WGI percussion, playing cymbals with Crystal Lake Thunder out of Crystal Lake, IL in 2018 and Pi Percussion out of Romeoville, IL in 2019 and 2020.
