Episode 61: Program Showcase Phoenix Independent Winterguard

So according to my research, the guard started back in 2006, correct?

That's the first year? 2005.

We started in 2005, 2006, our first season.

Okay.

That makes sense.

So not necessarily our plan to start an independent guard.

We had been involved with a high school program, which was our first real program that we taught at for roughly 10 years.

And toward the end of that 10 years, a new band director came on at the school.

And he and I had very different teaching styles.

And we worked together for a few years.

And it ended at a competition where I went to have a conversation with him about how I felt he was treating his students.

And that ended up with Liz and I being in a parking lot three hours from our home.

Buses left.

We had no vehicle.

stranded there so the next day in our rental car as we were driving back home is where phoenix was born and that's actually why it's called phoenix it's the rebirth from the flames of what went down

Gotcha.

OK, I was going to ask you how you got the name.

So you came out at first year and six members.

Yeah, a whopping six members.

You know, all you need is five.

Remember how excited we were at auditions? We had like, you know, 20 sets of equipment lined up.

The first audition, we didn't have enough people there to even put a program together.

So we encourage the members that were at the high school to stay involved at the high school.

We just felt that was the right place for them.

We didn't want to see their program suffer because of the acts of the director and I not seeing the same.