NO SCHOOL: Thanksgiving Recess
The City School District of Albany’s three winter guard squads competed on their home turf on Saturday and each earned second place in its division.
The Albany Winter Guard Home Show at Albany High School featured 18 winter guard squads from schools around the region that competed in a wide range of skill contests.
Also performing were Excelsior IAA, a winter guard squad made up of Albany students and parents, and the Albany Indoor Percussion Ensemble.
Winter guard is an indoor color-guard sport. Competitions combine the precision skills of marching band color guards with the grace and agility of gymnastics and the choreography of a dance ensemble. Each team’s performance is rated by a panel of judges.
The Albany winter guard team competed on three levels: varsity (Scholastic Regional A), junior varsity (Elementary Regional A) and modified (Cadet).
Albany performances told parts of the fairy tale “Peter Pan.” The Cadet squad performed “Second Star to the Right: A Peek into the First Visit of Peter Pan;” the ERA squad performed “Tink;” and the SRA performed “Neverland.” The Excelsior squad finished out the tale with “Hook,” a story of how the fabled pirate earned his name.
The varsity and modified squads have nine members each and the JV squad has eight members. The squads are composed of students in grades 4-12 from Albany High School, Albany School of Humanities (ASH), Montessori Magnet School, New Scotland Elementary School, Pine Hills Elementary School, Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School and William S. Hackett Middle School.
Directing the Albany teams were Donel Mataruga, Ashley Zannitto-White and Marcy McMillan.
Each weekend, several winter guard competitions are held around Upstate New York, at which typically 10-20 school teams compete. The results of those competitions allow teams to adjust their performances as they prepare for the season-ending championships on March 30 at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. In six competitions so far this year, the JV squad has consistently placed first and the modified and varsity squads between third and fifth.
The Albany Indoor Percussion Ensemble -- which competes as part of the New York State Indoor Percussion Circuit – performed a martial-arts inspired show with 24 students from Hackett, Myers and Albany High under the direction of Mark Sanford.
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The mission of the City School District of Albany is to educate and prepare all students for college and career, citizenship and life, in partnership with our diverse community. The district serves approximately 9,500 students in 18 elementary, middle and high schools. In addition to neighborhood schools, the district includes several magnet schools and programs, as well as other innovative academic opportunities for students, including four themed academies at Albany High School.
