Twirling flags and playing their hearts out to win state was the Warren Central Gold Brigade. On Oct. 14, the Gold Brigade marching band went into Franklin Central High School with high hopes and aspirations of winning state. Their dream would eventually come true, as they would be announced as the Indiana 1A state champions, for the third time in seven years.
“Winning state is unlike anything I've felt before,” junior Victoria Wilson said. "When waiting to hear the announcement, you could feel the anticipation in the air and when it was called that we won state, everyone jumped and screamed and cried because of how surreal it felt.”
Winning state is a huge accomplishment, but in the last seven years the group has won state on multiple occasions to show how dominating this program is. The dedication and work ethic is there, as they practice four days of the week for three to four hours each day. Even during summer and fall breaks, they continue to practice for four hours three days a week.
The amount of time they spend practicing also helps to get them to help know each other better.
“I would say we have come together gradually throughout the course of a long season,” Director Ed Meckes said. “We actually started our season back in May and went through the summer, and it came together through a lot of rehearsal and team building. People getting to know how one another are as people and getting to know one another as performers.”
The motivation and mentality they have when they need to keep pushing and are facing adversity is tough and precise.
They won back-to-back state championships in 2017 and 2018. Winning the title this many times is an honorable accomplishment that not many programs achieve.
“It feels really good because it's the first time we were able to do it in a while, and it feels great because I know how we're going to be able to accomplish a lot more in more seasons,” sophomore Sydney Franklin said.
While winning state for Gold Brigade was a large group effort, there is a lot of individual effort as well.
Showing up for practice can be tough, and working long hours to perform at the state level, in competitions and halftime for football games could potentially be tiring. However, week in and week out, the group is out on their own personalized turf, correcting and critiquing their every move to make sure they can perform with no flaw.
Behind a lot of this time is inspiration, and each individual member’s inspiration comes from different places.
“My mom inspired me to join color guard, and all of my peers and my coach helped me to be better and help us win state,” junior Bryelle Humphrey said.
Although state has passed there is much more to look forward to, as the group looks to compete in an Indiana Percussion Association competition and hope to come out on top to show up and show off to schools.
“With IPA coming up, I hope we win state there and do good at GGI,” sophomore Shamarie Roberson said.