After a season of virtual rehearsals and performances, the Longmont Combined Schools Drumline — a St. Vrain School District program mixing music, percussion, athletics and theater — qualified for the Winter Guard International, or WGI, World Finals.
This is the seventh time the Longmont Combined Schools Drumline has been selected as a WGI finalist. In addition, the group has won ten Rocky Mountain Percussion Association, or RMPA, State Championships, seven in as many years, according to David Merrill, director of bands at Longmont High School.
“With our drumline, we’ve been competitive for many years and a world champion about every other year,” he said. “This year is a very, very different situation. We started the season remotely, and were not able to have rehearsals together, students would use Webex and would be practicing with drum pads and rehearsing that way, making the most of it.”
In what has been an unprecedented year for the organization, Merrill said student performers continued to thrive in a sport that has put Longmont in the map nation- and worldwide.