New Season New Members!

We are excited to announce our cast members for 2010!

Sandi Caves

Nikki Chiodo

Samm Dawson

Tyler Edrington

Midori Eng

Kathleen Grooms

Lauren Grooms

Kelly Koester

Kris Lilly

Malissa Lucero

Kelly Mitchell

Kaitlyn Patrick

Kayla Puckett

Ben Quesinberry

Kara Wells

Rehearsals begin November 7th and we are looking ahead to a great season!

New Beginnings!!

The new season is finally here!! With registrations and show plans underway, I thought it was time to bring the blog back into full swing.

As you probably already know, we have made the move to Nashville, as our new home base. This will allow our members easier access and less travel for rehearsals and shows.

Auditions will be held on Sunday, October 4th, at TW Hunter Middle School in Hendersonville, Tennessee, from 9am - 6pm. We have had a tremendous response in registrations and are looking forward to meeting everyone!! If you want more information about auditions, visit our website at http://capellawinterguard.com. If you are planning on auditioning, please complete the online registration form.

Our 2009 staff are all returning, as well as some new faces. The 2010 instructional staff consists of Drew Solomonson, Sara Abramson, Elizabeth Heath, Rick Subel, and joining us for the new season are, Annie Pelka and Tyler Smith.

Our performance schedule will be expanded this year to include a third WGI Power Regional as well as World Championships. We will also be competing within the Southeastern Color Guard Circuit.

Less than two weeks to go until auditions, so get your registrations in. If you have any questions about anything Capella, feel free to contact us at capellaguard@aol.com. See you soon!!

Madam.

Congrats to the Phish!!

Congrats to Nikki Chiodo, Midori Eng, Robby Saner, Hannah Bowden, and Kelly Koester!! They are all members of the 2009 Phantom Regiment Colorguard!! See you on the field!

FOR SALE - EVERYTHING MUST GO!!

Capella is selling show flags from the past three seasons, practice flags, and their floor!  Don't miss out on these great deals!!!

www.capellawinterguard.com

David G Hill Reviews Capella's Koi

Check out Field and Floor's David G Hill and his superb reviews of his top guard pics of the season.  HERE  Thank you for the wonderful review!!!

Colorguard Historical Society

I have been a member for a while, but thought you all should know about this amazing site!  Go and visit them HERE.  Guard stalking at its finest!!  And...Capella is now part of that history.

Field and Floor - Sweet 16

Capella is named to F & F Sweet 16 guards of 2009!!!  Read about it HERE

I once caught a fish..........

2009 Field & Floor Top 32 Guards

Capella made David G. Hill's top 32!!!  Check it out HERE.  

SCGC and WGI World Championships

I have been a bad blogger!  Sorry for taking so long to post an update, but it has been a busy couple of weeks.   SCGC Championships were held at Vanderbilt Arena last weekend in Nashville.  The Koi were brilliant and took home the Gold Medal.   All went well, except for the show delay due to a tornado in the area.   A big thank you to Tim Vaughn and Mt Juliet High School for their support throughout the season!!    Do you love the fish fedoras?  

WGI World Championships were amazing!!  The fish placed 11th in Open Class Finals.  Being our first year in Open class, we were thrilled!  

Highlights:

A big thank you to Eklipse, Elysian and Kickapoo for helping us with the carp tarp.  We appreciate the love and support of our SCGC family and Robby's girls!!!  Gus...your fish fedora is coming!!

Congratulations to Spectrum for being bumped into Open class during the season and making it into finals.  We were actually tied for 10th, after Prelims.  How ironic....we purchased the "bacon" tarp from them at the beginning of the season.  It was great to be standing next to them at retreat and it was wonderful to meet Amy in person!!    

Due to the infamous "toin coss", we ended up next to our Northgate friends, who are our "tunnel buddies".  Congrats on a great season!  Hey Ginger...stop following me!!  :)

It was quite an emotional moment to see our little Andy, performing and earning the gold with Avon!   You were spectacular and we love you!!!

Madam's Medals:

Gold to Warren Central/Carmel - Scholastic World

Silver to NEI/Zydeco/Braddock - Ind World

Bronze to my doppleganger in Sacred Heart - Work it Madam!! 

Lowlights:

Toin Coss  :)

Ruts in floor at Prelims

98 degrees in rehearsal facility and glass booby traps

Chatty girls at Open Prelims - Take it outside!!!

I will miss....

My fish.   It has been nine years since my very first guard experience, as a traveling groupie.  I have never worked with a more talented and delightful group of performers.  They have been a joy and have made me a better person, just being around them.  I wish them all of the success and happiness in the world.  I will be lonely without them.

Congrats to Sara, Drew, Heath, and Rick on a beautiful show!  Thank you for letting me push your paper, and making me feel important.  It is all you.

It is that time of year where the Madam goes into hibernation for a few weeks, then looks forward to summer and drum corps!!  Woo Hoo!  The staff will be off on their summer adventures with Phantom Regiment and Music City.  Good luck to you and to our members who will be marching!!  

Stalk to you later!!   Madam

WGI Nashville Power Regional Review

The WGI Nashville Power Regional was held this past weekend at Cane Ridge High School, and Capella advanced to finals, where they placed second, out of seven Ind Open class units, with a score of 77.0.  The performance was beautiful, and we are very proud of our first WGI appearance in the Ind Open classification.  

Visit the WGI website HERE for the very nice review of the regional, and our performance, from David G. Hill.  Also, if you don't have a subscription to the Fan Network, you need to sign up!!  You can watch finals videos from all of the regionals as well as World Championships!  If you love watching winterguard, this is a MUST have.   Check us out, while you are there!

Being a guard roadie, I was unable to see all of the shows, but what I did see, gave me my guard fix, to hold me until we travel to Indy in three weeks.  That, and the Fan Network.  That being said, I have some things to tell you.....

Must Sees:

Milford HS.  They were ants at a picnic.  So clever, perfect costuming and props. Cried a little.

Marion Catholic HS.  Lovely soundtrack and their flags were tattered, on purpose, and simply 

gorgeous.

Warren Central HS.  LOVED this show.  Gorgeous floor, clever concept.

Flanagan.  What is not to love.  They are simply amazing.  Watched them enter the building like a small army, looking poised and professional.  I want to go to Flanagan HS.  There must be something in the water.  I went to high school just down the street from Pembroke Pines, where they hail from.  Obviously, there was nothing like THEM going on back in 1902.  Wow.

South Shore Drill Team.  They had two units there, 800 members, from 10 - 21 years of age, all staying in the hotel where we stayed.  Very friendly group of young people and extremely talented.....MAN!    My mouth hung open for their entire Open class show.  Incredible tricks and energy!!  Spinning and tossing two rifles at once.  Back handspring, really?  Spinning equipment and chairs at the same time.  DANG.  Definitely the crowd favorite with a standing O.

Crown Guard.  Beautiful show with talent out the kazoo.  The bell rifles were a nice touch.  I loved them when the corps used them a few years back...so cool!

Not So Much:

While the weather outside was cool, the gym was an uncomfortable 98 degrees during Prelims. Finals was better, but still quite schweaty, which I attribute to less people in the stands breathing.  I must have lost 10 pounds over the weekend.  I can wish.  Other than that....great job by Mt Juliet boosters and their handling of such a huge crowd...well done!!!  Cane Ridge HS is beautiful.  Congrats to Nashville Metro Schools, but it is nothing in comparison to Mt Juliet HS which is what Mt Olympus must be like.  

Harley's Tooth, Midori's Goose Egg, Whitney and Lindsay's ankles, Devon's Wheezing

Jana's costume malfunction, but excellent recovery!!  Excellent stripper technique.

Missed Cordova HS performance.  Congrats on your first place finish !!  Post pictures immediately.  Boo that they are not on Fan Network.

Being accosted by scary dude at Ruby Tuesday's in Nashville.   Ugh.

Rain on Saturday afternoon.  Wet Carp Tarp = FAIL.  

Okay, enough of that.  Here are some really nice pics of the KOI show, which I hijacked from someone's Facebook.  

Look for us at the WGI Indianapolis Power Regional in three weeks!!

Two......

Happy Hump Day! 3 Days to Go.....

4 days.

Pics from Cane Ridge Show

The Bate Man is Always Watching!!

We completed our second SCGC show at Cane Ridge High School in Nashville!  The fish placed first, tied with Eklipse, and our full show was well received.  

Our next show is at Cane Ridge HS again, but this time, for a WGI Power Regional, February 21st and 22nd!  We are excited to see more guards from all over the country!!

If you would like to see pics from our last show, follow this link to the Bateman Photo site....lots of fish mugs for your viewing pleasure!!

Fish Faces at Cane Ridge

Lawrence County Field Day

Our first show weekend was a great success and we had so much fun! The fish suits came in just in time, and they looked spectacular. With only a few fit issues, we were pleased. The koi placed first with great comments from the judges and spectators. Not bad for the first time out, and performing only half of our show. The show is finished, but we chose to put our best out there for premiere, and leave the rest as a surprise for the next show in two weeks. Can't wait.

Fish Face.

I love you.
Waiting to go into warm-up.Pose.

We had a great time hosting the SCGC Field Day clinic and there were ALOT of folks there. It was fun to see so many old and new friends, all spinning and dancing together.

We are back in rehearsals this weekend and are looking forward to our next show at Cane Ridge in Antioch. Come on out and see us!!

New Capella T Shirt

Here is the new t shirt design for all that want one (even non-members). We will be ordering them on February 1st, if you want one. They are $15.00 each and will be ready the second week in February!   Great job Sara!  So cute!  

If you are interested in ordering/purchasing one of these shirts, send me an email with your name, address and shirt size and I will give you directions on how to pay through Paypal.  

TOMORROW!

Yay for Field Day!!

Face Lift by Walter

Do you love our blog facelift?  Sara did it using our floor graphics.  How clever is she?

Carp Tarp

After two weekends of hours and hours of back breaking work, the CARP TARP is finished!!  It looks incredible.  Thank you to all of the members and staff who stayed very early into the morning to help finish Walter.  He is gorgeous!!

Walter makes his debut at the SCGC Field Day in Lawrenceburg this weekend.  So excited!

Here's the deal..........

Sorry I have not posted in a while. It has been a pretty horrible holiday season, at my house, on the whole, but it is a new year and the good news is:

Our carp tarp is painted after two weekends of back-breaking, late nights. It is gorgeous and we are so proud of it.

Our first show is Saturday, January 17th, 8 days away. Our flags just arrived and costuming is due in, any time now. We are hosting a clinic at Field Day and are really excited about that. Show shirts and jackets are in production! So much to do, now that the season is officially HERE!

This weekend is Capella movie night and pajama hype rehearsal, which even I can take part in. I am all about those footie pj's with the trap door. :)

Hope everyone is off to a good start this season! Cannot wait to get back out there among 'em!