Midwest Color Guard Circuit

The Midwest Color Guard Circuit (MWCGC) is a regional winter guard competition, where high school and independent color guards from around the Midwest compete for the championship title of their division. Opposed to traditional color guard, these teams perform in high school gymnasiums or indoor arenas to pre-recorded music, instead of a live band or orchestra.

History

The Midwest Color Guard Circuit was founded in 1959. It started small with around 18 competitive winter guards from select states and was headed first by Carl Olsen, Loren Dahnke, Several Others and Lynn Lindstrom (1940-2016) for over 23 years until her retirement in 2001. The Midwest Color Guard Circuit now has over 200 competitive winter guards from many Midwest states (like Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan) and is currently run by Howie Mogil. The first championship was held in Aurora, Illinois in 1959 and won by the Tioga Vagabonds Sr. from Bensenville, Illinois. In the first couple of years, Junior and Senior competed against each other. Gerry Romme was the color guard Sgt. Most of the members came from the Norwood Park Imperials, Beau Geste Brigade and Skokie Indians. There were no classes the first few years.

Performance

Opposed to traditional color guard, who perform outdoors to a live band and/or orchestra, winter guards perform indoors to recorded music. Each performance usually centers around an idea or theme. The members are then costumed and taught according to this theme. The coaches (or instructors) are the ones who pick the theme, pick the music to match, and come up with the choreography and equipment work to represent this theme clearly to a panel of judges. Generally speaking, the duration of a winter guard show can be roughly five or six minutes. Set up and tear down of props, vinyl floor (or tarp), equipment takes about two minutes and the actual show usually takes five minutes. Teams are only allowed a certain amount of time to set up, tear down, and perform, if they do not complete these tasks within the allotted time they will be penalized, which will deduct from their overall score. Each performance includes the use of several types of equipment (or disciplines), movement, and/or choreography, all taught by the instructors of the team (or "the guard").

Judging

Guards are judged in four different areas: equipment, design, movement, and general effect, each area with their own judge. Many judges are people whom have marched with professional winter guards before and are experts in their field. These judges keep a running commentary on a digital or tape recorder and give feedback on these tapes and record their scores on sheets of paper that are later tallied for a grand total, up to 100.00. The coaches may then meet with the judges after all the results have been finished to ask questions and get personal feedback from the judges that they wouldn't get from just listening to the tapes.

All of the different aspects of judging all have different meanings. Equipment is how well the performers handle their disciplines. If their technique and catches are sloppy it is more likely that they will have a lower score in that area. Design is how the show looks, this includes props, tarp, uniforms, makeup, and even flag choice, and how this all incorporates to their theme. Movement is scored on how the guard moves on the floor, whether it be marching or dancing, they are judged on how well they occupy space and are able to execute the choreography/drill taught to them. Finally, general effect, is how the show looks over all, is everyone and everything moving together correctly? Are the performers doing their best to convey the theme of the show?

Equipment

There are three main types of equipment: flag, rifle, and sabres. This equipment allows the performers to demonstrate their technical abilities. Electrical tape is often used to give the equipment a unified appearance and to protect from damage.

Flag

It is the most basic and fundamental piece of equipment in color guard and winter guard shows. Flags can come in many shapes and sizes however, the typical size is a six-foot (usually metal, although they also come in fiberglass and plastic) pole with a three foot "silk" taped to one end. Other flags may be used depending on the effect they want to create, although they may not be practical for spinning or tossing they add an element to the design and effect of the show. There are smaller, plastic or PVC poles with larger silks attached to them termed "swing flags", or even flags that can be as big as 5 to 7 feet.

Rifle

The rifles used in winter guard are fashioned in the shape of an actual rifle firearm however, they have no working parts. They are made of solid or hallowed-out lightweight wood and weigh in around 2-5 pounds and are approximately 30-39 inches and are made up of several parts:

  • The neck (or barrel) of the rifle is where the trigger would be on a rifle firearm. Spins and simple tosses are often performed from this end of the rifle.
  • The bolt is a long silver or black plastic piece on the top of the rifle held in by screws, made to look like a bolt on a firearm.
  • The pistol grip is the middle of the rifle, where the weight is equally balanced on each side and where right-handed spins are performed.
  • The strap is a black or white leather strap that goes from two-thirds from the tip of the barrel to the butt of the rifle. Held in by screws (also known as swivels or clips, used for hand placements for tosses) it is fashioned to look like a rifles sling and is used for "strap moves" and produces a snapping sound.
  • The butt of the rifle is the heaviest and biggest end of the weapon.
  • Finally, the tip is the smallest part of the rifle located on the end of the barrel.

Sabre

The sabre is one of the more advanced pieces of equipment used in winter guards. The sabre has two main parts: the blade and the hilt. The blade is a long piece of dull metal, ranging from 30-39 inches, usually wrapped in electrical tape with a small piece of black tape used for spotting the weapon as it spins in the air. The hilt can either be plastic or metal and is used for tricks or tosses. Some sabres can be shorter and be padded along the blade with a plastic hilt, these are generally the cheaper types of sabres.

Divisions

Every guard is split into a different division within the Midwest Color Guard Circuit based on their skill levels. number of members, and accessible resources. There are three divisions within the MWCGC, Cadet, Scholastic, and Independent. These divisions have classes within themselves (in no particular order): Scholastic Cadet (SCDT), Cadet (CDT), Scholastic A (SA), Scholastic AA (SAA), Scholastic Regional A1 (SRA1), Scholastic Regional A2 (SRA2), Scholastic Open (SO), Scholastic Regional (SR), Scholastic A (SA), Independent A (IA), Independent Regional A (IRA), Independent Open (IO), and Exhibition (EXH).

Guards may move up a class higher than theirs, or be "bumped", if their score is higher than the predetermined threshold, guards can even be bumped during the mid-season.

The Cadet division is made up of kids from ages 5-12, generally these guards are made up of children from middle schools that feed into bigger guards. The Scholastic division is made up of high schoolers from ages 13-18. Depending on the class some go on to compete in WGI. Then there is the Independent division. This division is unique in the sense that they are not affiliated with a school (with an exception for university teams) and draws in young adults from all over their area to make up their guards. In addition, because they are not associated with a school they can be more selective with the kinds of members they want in their guard, some require you to be 21 or younger to march with them. Many of the guards in the independent division go on to compete in WGI. Finally there is the exhibition division, where guards who are not currently competing in the MWCGC, whether it be lack of resources or money, may compete to get a sense of how well they would do in a certain class.

References
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