We had a great day today at WGI World Championships.  Warming up in 65 degree weather while having professionals from all the drum companies watch us was a blast.  Our uniform is not only featured in a very popular uniform brochure, but is also on display at the Arena with a sign saying, "as worn by the Amherst Indoor Drumline"  We are also in a "Welcome to the Percussion World Championship Video" on the WGI Website.   There were 60 schools in our division and our hopes were to make the first cut and be in the top 20 for semi-finals.  The group performed one of the best shows of the season.  Unfortunately, it was not enough to make that cut.  The Amherst Indoor Drumline is proud to say that we were in 29th place overall and were in the top 50% of the schools that competed.   Scores ranged from 71 to a 94 and Amherst received an 86.175.  The better news was that drumlines in placements 21-29 were all in the 86th point range out of 100 possible points which means on any given day the order of finish could have been much different for that grouping of schools.  It was a great experience for the kids and we hope to do it again next year.  Friday, we will be attending the World Class groups and Scholastic A Finals to watch the top 12 schools from the original 60 that started today.

The Amherst Indoor Drumline went out this weekend to perform in its very first competition ever at the National level performing in the Winter Guard International Circuit.  It is called WGI and has the word Guard in it for when it started in the 70's, only had color guard as members and it was not until the 90's when drumlines were added to the circuit.  The name WGI has stuck over the years and many in the business know it includes Guard and Percussion.

Anyway, Regional Championships (like the one's many of you see on Glee) is an elimination round in the morning and then a Final Championship round later in the evening.  We are very proud to say that Amherst qualified and made the cut for the Regional Championship coming in 5th place out of 18 high school drumlines.  At the Finals competition, the drumline performed its best show of the season raising their score to move up to 4th place and closing the gap between our school and the third place school.  More importantly, by making finals, the video of our performance is located on the WGI Fan network which is watched by thousands of people across the Nation!

The drumline will participate in the WGI championships in April.  There are already over 65 high school groups entered in Championships in our division which will begin with 2 elimination rounds to get to the top 12 for the Final Championship Competition.

Senior Dan Goswick is quoted in an article on the WGI Website discussing members' perspectives on marching with their indoor programs.  His picture also made their home page.  You can read the article here

Bob Kamnikar took photos of the Vermilion show and can be view here.  What great pictures!

As always, March seems to be a tough month for indoor drumline and there are always many changes to the schedule due to concerts, banquets, and this spring, our trip to Florida.  Posted on the drumline page is the schedule for the remainder of the season.  It is currently TENTATIVE due to not talking to the students about conflicts.  However, it is pretty much set for the days that are altered from our normal schedule need to be rescheduled due to unavoidable conflicts.  We are giving notice in advance so students may plan ahead.

The Amherst Indoor Drumline took second place at this weekend's MEPA competition out of 9 schools in the Scholastic A division.  The next performance for the drumline will be at Vermillion High School on Friday, February 18th.  However, the next competition for the line will be at the WGI Dayton Regionals on February 26th where the group will have to make the cut to perform in the finals competition Saturday evening in front of what is sure to be the largest crowd ever for a show at the Dayton Nutter Center.

The MEPA Championship Hotel is set for our usual Country Inn and Suites South on Yankee Street.  We are currently booked for one evening on Saturday, April 2nd.    For Championships at WGI, there is an understanding with the hotels that stay is a minimum of 2 nights.  This is because the event is so big, the hotels put a minimum of how many nights you are allowed to stay.  Sort of like what happens at resorts on the weekends.  Anyway, we have booked our WGI Championships at the Wingate by Wyndham Hotel on Presidential Drive for 2 nights which is walking distance from the Nutter Center.  We are booked for Thursday and Friday evenings April 14th and 15th.  If you would like to stay with the drumllne, please call the hotels and ask for the school's rate.  All we ask is that you make sure that you are not confusing the hotel into thinking that you are one of the rooms we have already booked.  For those of you that already booked at the other hotel, I can answer any questions as to why we changed and would recommend that you do the same as soon as possible and we appologize for the inconvenience.

The Amherst Indoor Drumline took SECOND PLACE this weekend in the first competition of the year at Miamisburg High School.  The line got good comments from judges and critique was very positive with an eagerness to see what and where the line will go the rest of the season.  We took second place this weekend, but by only 1 tenth of a point to Lebannon High School.  This year, Amherst is not only participating in the local Ohio Circuit but in April, will be traveling to compete in the World Winter Guard and Drumline Championships in Dayton, Ohio.  Congrats to the members of the Amherst Indoor Drumline on a great opening weekend of the 2011 Season.

Please download and return form below on Monday the 29th to have permission to tryout for the 2011 line.  Very difficult decisions are being made and we want no surprises.  Please turn in the form for we will try to set the line at Tuesday's practice.