Just one week before (March 23-24), Lemoore High School’s percussion group finished third at the WGI Western Championships held at CSU San Bernardino while the school’s winter guard – a couple of hundred miles away – took third in the Las Vegas WGI Western Championships.
Not bad for a couple of small schools from Lemoore.
Chris Morshead, the band director at Liberty Middle School, helps organize the percussion aspect of the Liberty and Lemoore High School program. The Fresno State graduate is in his 13th year with the Lemoore Elementary School District.
And he gets plenty of help, particularly from Lemoore High School’s band director, Shawn Mcelhaney and Marcus Zellous, himself a talented musician and former Tiger drum major. Also, in the mix is Jennifer Alanzalon, an LHS grad and English teacher at Liberty Middle School, who spends many of her weeknights – before grading students’ homework – teaching winter guard at the middle school and Lemoore High School.
These musical teachers must be doing something right because their teenage disciples are racking up competition wins.
“I think it’s the fact that after these kids leave and graduate, they come back and help teach the next group,” said Morshead who spends many of his evenings with both Alanzalon and Zellous teaching at Lemoore High School. “We couldn’t function without the help of these awesome individuals who want to see the next group succeed.”
Winter guard is an exacting discipline usually performed indoors to recorded music and traditionally associated with marching bands. Winter guard performers perform an almost ballet-like routine sometimes involving intricate choreography and costumes.
Percussion is an essential aspect of any musical band. Percussion musical instruments are usually played by striking or shaking drums, cymbals, xylophones, gongs, bells, and rattles.