Almost Home Brings Home the Gold!

Saginaw, MI
March 27, 2010

2010 Almost Home --> Be OK From Left to Right: Back Row: Robert Becker, Keith Burns, Sharon MacDermaid, Sarah Mundwiler Front Row: Emily Mundwiler, Rachael Yomtoob, Mackenzie Bush, Ciera Bowden, Riley Breimayer.

2010 Exit 52 --> Fireflies
From Left to Right:
Back Row: Lindsey Schuller, Keith Burns, Sharon MacDermaid
3rd Row: Karen Mae Wesolek, Kayla Blough, Amanda Wilson, Sarah Mundwiler.
2nd Row: Rachel Phelps, Alison Huffman, Nicole Bagin, Danielle Bagin, Bree Heikkila
Front Row: Kayleigh Davies, Robert Becker, Jodi Carvill


The Michigan Color Guard Circuit held its 35rd annual championship competition at Saginaw Valley State University on Saturday, March 27, 2008. Two local guards were on hand to compete for top honors.

Exit 52, consisting of 12 members from Lowell High School and Almost Home, consisting of 5 members from Lowell Middle School. Both came to SVSU for the MCGC championships event with high hopes of winning big. Exit 52 is in its 4th year of competition in the MCGC and performed their 2010 program Fireflies set to the music of Owl City. The show opened with a flag solo by Robert Becker and a full guard dance section followed by the entire guard on flag. Exit 52 featured their rifle line in the middle section of the show and included a partner feature with the flag line and the rifle line. The last section of the show featured the entire guard on impressive gold flags. Six of the flags contained hidden gold and neon green confetti which was thrown out of the flags during the final flag feature which represented fireflies. As the confetti fell to the floor, the show concluded with a flag solo by Sarah Mundwiler who ended the show holding a jar of light up fireflies. The guard received an excellent crowd response and had a great ending to their 2010 competition season.

Almost Home is in their 3rd year of competition and performed to the song, Be OK by Ingrid Michaelson. Almost Home had a strong regular season and had their best performance of the year on Saturday. The show featured soloists Rachael Yomtoob and Emily Mundwiler and was a crowd favorite all season. Almost Home was the 2008 Flag Line Class Champion. They went into the Championships event in 2nd place putting them in medal contention again this year. At the awards ceremony on Saturday afternoon Exit 52 placed 4th in AA Class competing against 12 guards. It was a very close finish with just over 2 points between 1st and 4th place. Almost Home returned the title of Flag Line Class Champions to Lowell by once again placing 1st at the MCGC Championships.

All of the students involved in Exit 52 and Almost home have worked for countless hours on these programs and deserve kudos for all of their hard work and dedication.

Exit 52 and Almost Home are under the Direction of Sharon MacDermaid. The Staff of Exit 52 also includes, Karen Mae Wesolek, Lindsey Schueller, Keith Burns and Brian Liwak. The Staff of Almost Home also includes Keith Burns and Junior Staff Members Robert Becker and Sarah Mundwiler.


Thanks you all for your support during our 2010 competition season.

Full Scores from the MCGC Championships are available for download from the MCGC Guard Scores Link

Championships Update

The MCGC CHampionship Schedule is now available for download on the MCGC site.
Follow this link (MCGC Guard Championships Schedule) for details.

The game plan at this point is to meeting in the Hotel Lobby at 8:45am on Saturday so we can get to unit check in around 9:00am. Almost Home will need to be ready to perform with their uniforms on and their make up done. Exit 52 will need to be presentable but not in uniform or show makeup.
Almost Home performs at 10:21. Their awards are at 3:17. :)

Exit 52 will need to head back to the hotel to get ready and should be ready in uniform and full makeup at the 1st awards ceremony at 3:17. We will meet in the turf room at 4:15 to begin our warm up. All Exit 52 members should bring a beach towel with them to sit on in case it is nice enough to stretch outside.
Exit 52 performs at 5:25 and their awards are at 8:45. :)

Mae performs with Interplay World at 8:35 pm.

Diane Heikkila is getting the goodie bags together for the kids and is organizing the group dinner on Friday night. More info on that soon.

It's hard to believe this season is coming to an end. I am very proud of both of our guards and I am looking forward to a wonderful weekend at SVSU.

Grand Blanc Contest Results

This past weekend Exit 52 & Almost Home traveled to Grand Blanc for their final regular season contest of the 2010 competition season. Both groups had outstanding performances and I could not be more proud of a group of kids than I am of all of them right now.

Exit 52 placed 2nd again this week which has then ranked 2nd in the state in their class going into Championships this weekend. Almost Home placed 3rd but it was sure a close one with only 0.5 points between 2nd and 3rd. Almost Home is now ranked 3rd heading into Championships.

Scores from Our Classes. . .

Flag Line
1 Reeths-Puffer Cadets Green 89.00
2 Reeths-Puffer Cadets White 87.80
3 Almost Home 87.30
4 Marysville Junior Flagline 74.50

AA
1 Lake Shore Aria 73.40
2 Exit 52 71.50
3 Inspiration 70.90
4 Maumee Winter Guard 68.80
5 Reeths-Puffer JV Winterguard 68.20
6 Troy High Winter Guard 67.50
7 Troy Athens Alias Winterguard 65.30
8 Godwin Heights Color Guard 64.30
9 Mount Pleasant High School Winter Guard 64.20
10 LHS Mystique 58.60

Both groups will be traveling to Saginaw on Friday to compete on Saturday at Saginaw Valley State University and are both in medal contention being ranked 2nd and 3rd.

Advance discount tickets for MCGC Championships

This weekend is the last weekend to purchase advance discount tickets for MCGC Championships.

Advanced Ticket Prices are as follows:
Individual ticket prices are $10.00
Family packet of (4) for $35.00.

Tickets are available at the MCGC Merchandise booth at both the Grand Blanc and Milford shows.

Reeths-Puffer Contest Results

Once again, congratulations are in order for both Exit 52 and Almost Home after a strong showing at the Reeths-Puffer contest on Saturday, March 13, 2010.

Almost Home has their best performance of the season and brought home well deserved 1st place honors.
Flag Line Class Results
1^st Almost Home 73.20
2^nd Reeths-Puffer Cadets Green 67.90
3^rd Reeths-Puffer Cadets White 66.70
4^th Muskegon Catholic Central Crusaders 66.30
Exit 52 had a strong showing and got great crowd response with our added fireflies and "sparkles."
AA Class Results
1^st Reeths-Puffer JV Winterguard 65.60
2^nd Exit 52 63.60
3^rd Mount Pleasant High School Winter Guard 60.90
4^th Portage Northern 59.00
5^th Zephyros 57.10Great job to Team Lowell. Two more weeks to get out there and give it your all.

Pre-Order Your MCGC Championship Videos Today!

The MCGC has contracted a new video company, Alliance Media, to produce our Championships Videos this year. You have the opportunity to purchase MCGC Championship DVD's for significantly lower cost if you order them now compared to the price they will the day of the event.
Please take a moment to follow the link below and consider ordering your videos early. It will be one less thing to worry about the day of the even and you'll save yourself some money at the same time. :)

http://www.alliancemedia1.com/product_pages/2010mcgc.php
--> Link to pre-order MCGC Championship Videos








http://alliancemedianetwork.com/
---> Alliance Media Home Page. Get Online Access to MCGC Events and events from all over the country.

Grand Blanc Contest - Saturday 3/20

Here's the plan for the weekend of the Interplay Contest @ Grand Blanc. . .

Fri 03/19 Rehearsal at LMS for Exit 52 and Almost Home 7:00-9:30
Dress Runs @ 9:00 Invite your friends and family to come watch.

Saturday 03/20 - Contest @ Grand Blanc

---> I (Mrs. Mac) need to be at the contest when it starts at 11:00 so I will be leaving early Saturday morning. Those wishing to carpool should meet at LMS same as always so you can travel together. There is no rest stop built into this trip since it is less than 2 hours. Please eat before you leave or bring a bag lunch to eat on the way, or plan on eat at the concession stand once you arrive. :)

• Depart LMS @ 11:45
• Arrive Grand Blanc @ 1:30
• Almost Home Performs @ 3:00
• Exit 52 Performs @ 6:14
• Awards 8:52
  
  

Reeths-Puffer Contest - Saturday 3/13

Here's the plan for this weekend. . .

Fri 03/12 Rehearsal at LMS for Exit 52 and Almost Home 7:00-9:30
Dress Runs @ 9:00 Invite your friends and family to come watch.

Saturday 03/13 - Contest @ Reeths-Puffer

• Depart LMS @ 1:30
• Arrive Reeths-Puffer 2:40
• Almost Home Performs @ 4:10
• Exit 52 Performs @ 6:05
• Awards 6:37