The Director's Perspective on 3 World Championships

Jay Webb, Director of Bands at Avon High School provided the following article sharing his perspective on his program's unprecedented success.

This past weekend the Avon Band department completed an unprecedented feat at the 2022 Winter Guard International (WGI) World Championships held in Dayton, Ohio, sweeping all three of the World Championships Gold Medals. On April 6-9, the Avon Winter Guard placed first, winning the Gold Medal for the World Class division. They had also won the previous two championships that were held in 2017 and 2018. (There were no championships in 2019 or 2020 due to COVID-19.) WGI World Class is the highest achievement level with the scholastic divisions. Under the Direction of Daniel Wiles, they delighted audiences and adjudicators alike with their creative "Age of Anxiety" program. They are an incredible group that has had innovative design with unmatched levels of excellence for the past few years.

We are so fortunate at Avon that we have the support of our community and administration to provide these incredible and life changing opportunities that many other high school students across the country never have the opportunity to participate in.

This past weekend, the Avon Drumline overcame a strong push from the Southern California and Boston Massachusetts drumlines to come from behind to win the Percussion Scholastic World class with the second highest score ever of 98.6. The drumline won previously in 2002. Using a theme based around boxing and other athletic endeavors, the drumline brought the house down with their exciting and masterful execution of their show "The Playbook". The Avon Drumline is Directed by Lee Allman and assisted by Tony Cook.

To complete the sweep, the Avon Indoor Winds, under the direction of Matt Harloff, wowed audiences with their program entitled "Murmuration" depicting flocks of birds to a glorious soundtrack. An incredible score of 99.175 brought home the Gold Medal. The winds division first started in 2015. Avon was the champion in 2016 and 2017.

All of the groups have been at the forefront of their divisions for quite some time. But there are very few schools nationally that even have groups at the world class level. It takes years to develop into a world class organization. We are so fortunate at Avon that we have the support of our community and administration to provide these incredible and life changing opportunities that many other high school students across the country never have the opportunity to participate in.

As the director of the program that provides these opportunities, I am beyond proud of our students achievements. I see their hard work and dedication that goes into these activities. These kids will put in 400-500 hours of rehearsal outside of the school day within a season. The level of maturity and life skills that are required to participate in such an intense group experience is heartwarming to watch from todays young people. It gives all of us hope!

Avon has been one of the nationwide leaders in pageantry competitions for the past 20+ years, however this accomplishment is an incredible feat by one program.