WALNUT, California — Santa Clara Vanguard made its return to competitive action June 28, during the first day of the Corps at the Crest DCI Tour Event. Friday night’s performance was the first time the California-based corps took the field since the 2022 season.
“The performance was phenomenal, especially being able to be on the field once again after not fielding a corps last year, ” Santa Clara Vanguard drum major Maddy Heintz said. “It was such an honor to be a part of the people fielding in ‘24.”
After a strong 2022 season which included a fifth-place finish at the 2022 DCI World Championships, the corps surprisingly announced after that season that it would not participate in the 2023 DCI Tour.
The news sent shock waves throughout the drum corps community, but the corps assured drum corps fans that Santa Clara Vanguard would return.
“While this decision may seem detrimental to the future of SCV, it serves to ensure the success of SCV in future years,” the corps’ statement read. “With this in mind, we make the sacrifice of a single year to ensure a thriving future for Vanguard for many years to come.”
Just over a year and a half later, that statement became a reality. Santa Clara Vanguard took the field to thunderous applause from the audience, something that was quite a surprise to the performers.
“No one knew how it was going to be,” Heintz said. “We weren’t sure what the crowd reaction was going to be, but it’s so heartfelt and welcoming to know all these people love and care for this organization so much.”
Coming back to the DCI Tour requires a lot of behind the scenes efforts. One of those efforts was understanding the legacy of Santa Clara Vanguard, one of the founding member corps of DCI in 1972, and how those treasured moments within the organization shape what the corps can be in 2024.
“It's taken a lot of reaching out to alumni to learn about the traditions and the history behind the corps,” Heintz said. “Although we kept almost 100% of our retention rate, there's still only 40 members who are from Santa Clara vanguard in 2022. So it took a lot of talking to alumni to figure out what Vanguard truly means and what it means to be able to put this back on the field with people who have never been a part of the organization before.”
Vanguard's second-place finish on Friday night in Walnut made a strong statement about how the corps may fare competitively as the 2024 DCI Tour gets underway in the coming weeks. But the success of the corps on the scoresheets is something that Heintz says is not the corps’ top priority.
“I honestly don't think the scores matter, and we've been told that the scores don't matter as long as we put on a performance and we show the audience that we love them as much as they love us,” Heintz said. “Everyone has had the mentality of just bringing Vanguard back onto the field and continuing that excellence and legacy through everything we do.”