Wishing @NikkiIsgar & The Brigadiers The Best Today in Dayton During IO Championship Competition

My niece, Nikki, will be competing with the Brigadiers Winterguard during championship competition in Dayton, Ohio, during the final week of WGI Internationals. I feel fortunate that I was able to catch an early performance when they competed in New Jersey earlier in February (and hate that Henry the Hernia acted up when they also competed at Monmouth University a few weeks later. I couldn't see an encore performance).

From Connecticut, I've been able to keep up with her happiness through photographs, a few videos, and all-around pure joy whenever I talked with her about her experiences on this particular team. They perform to the music of Tracy Chapman (The Promise) and their show fluidly flows from start to finish in an exciting, emotional, and rhythmic story of relationships. It is easy to see why the judges have scored them at the top of their class all season.

I wish her and her fellow Brigadiers the best in their performance today. My father marched with their drum and bugle corp in his much younger years while carrying the Sherburne Pageant of Bands tradition with him to Syracuse. Now, 50+ years later, Nikki continues to push sport-of-the-arts boundaries with her dedication, practice, performance, and equipment work..

It would be wonderful to see the Brigadiers perform live in the Dayton Flyers arena (a two hour drive from Louisville), but I am still in "rest" mode and will have to hear their updates through text messaging throughout their day.

Don't know what Winterguard is? Here's a quick video of its history from YouTube.