PEARCY -- The Winter Winds of Lake Hamilton High School recently took the title of World Champions in the Scholastic A Class of the Winter Guard International World Championships.
The 46-piece ensemble traveled to Dayton, Ohio, and competed in the finals on Sunday where they scored 92.65 and earned first place, becoming the first group from Arkansas to earn a medal in the competition. The group was also named A Class Fan Favorite during the competition.
Lake Hamilton Winter Winds has been in existence and competing for three years, and adds elements of movement and color to concert band for a staged performance. The Winds division of WGI has only been in existence for a short time longer.
"From year one, it was kind of a new concept to all of us so even the judges and people that work for WGI, they were trying to figure out what exactly the Winds was supposed to be," said Trystan Digby, 12th-grader and third-year member of Winter Winds. "So it's really just been like a big journey and exploration in what we want to do with it."
According to John Shultz, director of bands for Lake Hamilton, the purpose of the Winds division was to be able to combine other elements such as color guard and drum corps. In Lake Hamilton's group, there is no color guard involved, but there are some percussion instruments.
"The best part about Winds is it's the only inclusion area," Shultz said. "We don't use the guard part in Winds because (musicians) are the guard. They have to move like a guard member and play like they're in a wind ensemble. It actually takes not marching band, but concert band and combines it with movement. Most of their skills now are based in ballet with some contemporary dance."
The group came up with the concept for their performance and based on that, a design team developed an aesthetic. Members dressed in uniforms individually suited for them, and practice began in January.
"So our first two years we actually kept our same show concepts from our fall shows," said 12th-grader Allie Caldwell. "This year we did a whole new show and concept and we all kind of felt like we were all taking it to a whole new level. We focused more on a musical part of it. Before we had more guard elements in it, but this year it was kind of the point where the activity had to decide what they wanted the Winds group to be.
"And so this year we took it to where we wanted to be the deciding factor in it and we kind of morphed into more of a concert band with a lot of movement and settings in it. We took the whole musicality part of it to a whole new level, and the emotional aspect of it as well."
Shultz said the group used a quote at the end of the show to bring the concept all together -- "we're all leaves from the same tree."
According to 12th-grader Emily Huggs, the concept of the show started with "everyone as strangers."
"As the show progressed, music kind of brought everybody together," she said. "It reminded us that there are different people in society, but we're all one."
Shultz said it was ironic the group won this year because they almost did not compete with the championships falling on the same weekend as the school's prom, noting a group of three students were insistent on competing again this year.
"I said bring me a list of 40 names of students that are willing to give up prom and I'll think about it. So they brought me a list of names that had close to 50 names on it, and after talking to the administration and clearing that that was OK with them, we decided to compete. And that was in November right after we got back from grand nationals."
Digby said the group competed in the preliminary competition Saturday and placed second. They were behind by .125 points, he said.
"Of course being that close we went back to camp and practiced for four hours," he said. "We all kind of had this special bonding moment around the campfire talking about what we were thankful for and why we were doing this, and that kind of just brings a whole other level to it. A connection we all share.
"WGI is a very emotional thing. Sunday we performed at 11:04 a.m. and then we all came off the mat feeling what was probably our best run ever and it ended up paying off. We ended up winning by .075 which a lot of people don't know what that means but that's very close."
Emily Garcia, a 12th-grader, said the hard work involved in putting this performance together all paid off with the achievement, to which Caldwell added the group is "ecstatic" to have made history as not only the first group from Arkansas to medal in WGI, but also take first place.
"To be able to say that we all did it together as a group and as a whole, I think we're all just very proud of that," Caldwell said.
"We also all think it's pretty cool that we were able to shape what the sport is going to be like now," said Elijah Pavett, 10th-grader.
Local on 04/25/2018