2023 Education Day

Saturday, December 2, 2023 | 9 am – 3 pm | Mt. Lebanon High School

If you love colorguard, dance, twirling, or percussion, you’ll want to be at Mt. Lebanon High School on December 2nd for the Tournament Region 8 Education Day presented by Tournament Region 8 and Simply Colorguard.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in an indoor ensemble or a marching band, you are welcome to attend. And participation is not just limited to Region 8 units. Anyone, from any unit, anywhere, is welcome to attend for a day of fun and learning.

This day will feature sessions from some of the top instructors and designers in the marching arts. Join in on classes designed specifically for performers and instructors. All experience levels are welcome.

Find the schedule below.

Important Information:

  • Colorguard, twirler, and battery percussion participants will be asked to bring their own equipment if possible.
  • Participants are free to attend any session of their choosing. You do not need to stay in one genre.
  • Final details will be emailed to all participants prior to December 2nd.

Registration Information

Cost:

  • $10 per Performer Participant (Registration Forms Below – Pre-registration is required)
  • Free for Instructors (Instructors Attending, please fill out the form below for instructors to let us know you’re attending)

Registration Forms:

Schedule

TIME Colorguard Twirler Dance Percussion Instructor
9 am – 10 am Opening Session For All Attendees: Mindful Movement – Courtney Coffey
10:15 am – 11:15 am Movement with Equipment – Courtney Coffey Dance Breakout – Michelle Hanbury Percussion Movement – Alexa Kostelnik Resources for Instructors – Stephanie Enedy Perfecting Audio Design in the Percussion Marching Arts – Joshua Bujakowski and Anthony Princeton
11:30 am – 12:30 pm Weapons Breakout  – Tori Palermo Breath and Technique for Flag Session – Michelle Hanbury Twirling Breakout Part 1 (Technique)  – Olivia Maggioli Performance Quality Factors – Benji Vollmer Mallet Session and Battery Session (both offered in this time slot) The Importance of Physical Conditioning and Mindset For Performers – Courtney Coffey
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm LUNCH
(Bring Your Own or Lunch Will Be Avaliable for Purchase)
1:45 pm – 2:45 pm Flag Breakout  – Hector Arocha Breath and Technique for Weapons Session – Michelle Hanbury Twirling Breakout Part 2 (Tricks etc.) – Olivia Maggioli Partner Work/Lifts – Benji Vollmer Mallet Session and Battery Session Part Two (both offered in this time slot) Understanding What Your Unit Is Being Judged On  The Judging Rubric – Brian Lincoln/Justin Turpin
2:45 pm – 3 pm WRAP UP

 

Meet The Instructors

(More Bios Coming Soon)

Featured Instructor – Courtney Coffey

Courtney Coffey is a colorguard instructor, designer, performer, and enthusiast with over 10 years of experience marching and teaching all over the world. Starting her journey in 2011 at Mountain View High School in Stafford, VA, she fell in love with colorguard. She went on to march with JMU Nuance Winterguard, The Marching Royal Dukes, The Troopers, Carolina Gold, and Vox Artium Winterguard, performing in sought-after events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Presidential Inauguration, the Italian New Years’ Parade in the Vatican, and more.

After years of marching and teaching a variety of programs with access to different levels of resources, she noticed a gap in the activity–navigating it at a high level was extremely exclusionary. If you didn’t have access to fully developed marching programs, expensive clinics and auditions, or the resources to march DCI or WGI, furthering your involvement within the activity is extremely difficult. That’s why she created Simply Colorguard– a reliable space where instructors, performers, enthusiasts, and more could come learn about the activity, strengthen their skills with reliable instruction from world class instructors, navigate how to build a professional career in the marching arts, and more! Her towering record of success in the activity as both a performer and instructor is proof that her holistic approach to colorguard education that is shared via Simply Colorguard is a winning one, for both the program and the students.

Hector Arocha
Hector comes to us originally from San Antonio, TX, where he fell in love with the activity at the age of twelve during Middle school. He joined the South San Antonio High School color guard “The Main Event” his freshman year (1994) where he marched both outdoor and indoor throughout his high school years where he competed at the local, state, and national level (WGI). After graduation, he taught his high school and various other high school marching units in the San Antonio area. In 1990, he moved to Rochester, NY to become a member of the Empire Statesmen Drum and Bugle Corps. Here he traveled the world competing in the World March Music Games in countries like Sweden, Brazil, France, and Holland. He also marched with Winter guard organizations such as the Patriots from Rochester, NY, and Alliance of Miami, from Miami, Florida.

In 2010, he relocated to Pittsburgh, PA and now calls it home. While in Pittsburgh, PA he joined Andromeda Independent winter guard where he was a member and instructor. He now is the color guard instructor for the Hempfield Area High School Winter Guard program.

Hector continues to love the sport of the arts “Color Guard” as well as having the opportunity to share this passion with so many different Middle and High School student. Part of this passion is watching his student’s progress and grow in this sport. Hector finds excitement in observing part of his life as his student’s compete and grow. Knowing that he got to be part of their moment.

Joshua Bujakowski

Joshua Bujakowski is a percussion educator and audio designer based in Harrison City, PA. He is currently appointed as one of the Directors of Percussion at Penn-Trafford High School. Since his time as a Director of Percussion, Joshua and the percussion staff have captured numerous WGI Regional Championships since their debut in 2014, and the WGI Scholastic Concert A silver medals in 2019, 2022 and the WGI Concert Open silver medal in 2023.

He is also one of the Lead Audio Designers for several theater groups around the Pittsburgh Area, a freelance Audio Engineer, and the Audio Designer at Penn-Trafford Bands.

Joshua has worked alongside world-class composers, commissioning several pieces for his Percussion Ensembles. Bujakowski is a graduate of Point Park University, where he studied Media Production, and his Master in Science at Drexel University.

Joshua has worked with students ranging from elementary to high school percussion, teaching private lessons from his studio since 2015.

Joshua is a member of the Percussive Arts Society.

Stephanie Enedy
Stephanie Enedy is a dedicated color guard director with a rich history of teaching dance, baton, and color guard. Since the late 90s, she has shared her passion and expertise with numerous programs in Pennsylvania and Maryland. For the past 11 years, she has served as the Director of Color Guard at Mt. Lebanon High School, where she continues to inspire and mentor young performers to excel in the world of color guard.

Michelle Hanbury
Michelle began studying dance at the age of 5.  She studied various forms of dance including jazz, tap, modern, ballet, point and lyrical. She began her journey as a dance teacher at age 12, where she instructed children ages 3-11. While attending Carrick High School, Michelle was a member of their competing indoor and outdoor colorguard team as well as the independent colorgurad team “Dark Horizons”. While she was a member of both teams she was featured on rifle, sabre and movement. While Michelle was in her senior year at Carrick High School she had the opportunity to design and choreograph their competitive color guard team for the Raider Marching Band and the indoor winterguard.  Along with Carrick High School, Michelle instructed the colorguard and winterguard at Elizabeth Forward High School.  She continued to teach dance as well.  Michelle is married and is the mother of 3 beautiful children.  She has been the head instructor for CoMotion Dance team since 2006 and currently serves as director.  With much hard work and dedication Michelle has helped to grow the organization from one team to several teams ranging in both age and skill set. For the past six years, Michelle has served as the Vice President for the Region 8 Tournament of Bands/Tournament Indoor Association organization. She is in sales for Aerotek which is a skilled trade staffing company.

Alexa Kostelnik
Alexa Kostelnik graduated from California University of Pennsylvania in 2016 with a degree in Commercial Music Technology. Before college, she danced at Ken & Jean Dance Studio for 15 years, competing in Dance Masters of Pennsylvania Regional Competition in 2011 and 2012. In 2011, the group participated in Dance Masters National Competition, receiving 2nd place overall. After college, Alexa worked as a Ballroom Dance Instructor at Arthur Murray Dance Studios for 4 years teaching couples and singles how to partner dance. For the past 4 years, she has been working with Penn-Trafford Percussion and recently began working with the their Colorguard.

Brian Lincoln

Brian Lincoln is the Education and Scholarship Director for the National Judges Association.  Duties of that position include the training of new NJA adjudicators, the continuing education of currently certified NJA adjudicators, coordination of NJA education functions, and coordination of the annual NJA TOB/TIA Class scholarships.  Previous positions held with NJA include Individual Analysis Equipment facilitator for NJA/TIA and, most recently, General Effect Visual facilitator for NJA/TOB and General Effect/Percussion Visual Effect facilitator for NJA/TIA.

Brian has over 30 years of experience as a designer and instructor for many units associated with TOB and TIA organizations including the Wilkinsburg HS marching band and indoor guard, Carrick HS and marching band and indoor guard, Avonworth HS marching band and indoor guard, Dark Horizons indoor guard, Attitude Sr. indoor guard, Phoenix indoor guard, and the Firebird Sr. indoor guard.  Outside of TOB/TIA, Brian participated as a performer and/or instructor for several Senior Drum and Bugle Corps including the Steel City Ambassadors, Johnsburg Grey Knights, Allegheny Nightstorm, and the Westshoremen Sr. (Harrisburg, PA).  This experience also includes two years as Drum Major for Penn Hills High School, two years as Drum Major for the University of Pittsburgh Marching Band, and two years each as Drum Major for the Steel City Ambassadors and Allegheny Nightstorm Sr. Drum and Bugle Corps.

In his professional life, Brian is a Technology Platform Lead/Project Manager for a global aluminum company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has held many technical developer and team management positions within that company and the University of Pittsburgh over the past 35 years.  Much of this work requires a deep understanding and consideration of the scope of projects/activities, development of strategies, implementation of activities, customer relations, training, delivering work according to established schedules, etc., as well as how to “put it all together” to complete a successful implementation.  All of these experiences greatly assisted Brian’s work within the pageantry arts in that many of these concepts apply to the development of indoor and outdoor programs.

In his personal life, Brian is an avid amateur bowler on two leagues, enjoys camping most weekends during the year (when possible), and is very much a Science Fiction enthusiast (Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, etc.), collecting books, costumes, movies, and other memorabilia.

Olivia Maggioli
Baton twirling started as a hobby, but quickly captivated Olivia Maggioli’s free time until she graduated from Purdue University in May of 2018. Olivia started competing individually at the NBTA state, regional, and national levels where she was successful and able to win several titles. During her high school years, she competed in the TIA circuit with the Elizabeth Forward High School Colorguard and Majorettes. After high school, she went on to earn a position in the Purdue University Twirling Program. She held three different positions in the program: All-American Twirler, Silver Twin, and Purdue’s 29th Golden Girl. While at Purdue, Olivia was given many opportunities to perform across the country and internationally. Baton twirling was a large part of her life for 20 years, and she is excited to be a part of the TIA Education Day!

Victoria “Tori” Palermo

Tori is currently the Color Guard director at McKeesport Area High School.

Before joining the McKeesport family in 2021, Tori previously worked with Riverside HS, Hampton HS, Blackhawk HS, and Rochester HS Color Guard programs. Since being at McKeesport, the indoor and outdoor program has obtained two gold medals and one silver medal within the TOB and TIA competitive circuits. Tori and Mario Schwartz worked collaboratively on McKeesport’s productions from 2021 to present, to which Tori and Mario are incredibly grateful and proud of the students accomplishments.

Tori grew up in Fairfax, Virginia where she participated in dance and liturgical performance. Some of her favorite performances include religious dance pieces performed in New Orleans, LA after Hurricane Katrina and at the Washington Monument lawn in Washington D.C. In 2008, she moved to Beaver, Pennsylvania where she attended High School and participated in the Marching Band and Color Guard at Beaver HS. Tori was introduced to Winterguard after auditioning and performing with Excel Winterguard as a HS freshman for the 2009-2010 season. Tori returned to the group in 2013 after it had been renamed Pittsburgh Performance Project. Tori performed with Pittsburgh Performance Project “P3” from 2013 to 2023, a total of 10 consecutive years. The memories made with P3 are deeply cherished and will last a lifetime. Tori continues to take ballet, hip hop, and contemporary dance classes when possible as well as continued training on flag, sabre, and rifle.

Tori hopes to share her knowledge, passion, and love for the activity with young people as long as possible.

Anthony Princeton
Anthony Princeton is a music educator and audio designer based in Irwin, PA. He is currently the Assistant Director of the Penn-Trafford High School Percussion Ensemble. During his time as Assistant Director, the ensemble has achieved competitive success at a national level, with highlights including two WGI Scholastic Concert A silver medalists in 2019 & 2021 and the WGI Scholastic Concert Open silver medal in 2023.

Beyond assisting with audio design, Anthony collaborates with his colleagues at Penn-Trafford in program design. His contributions can be seen in Penn-Trafford’s competitive repertoire since 2019. Each of these productions have featured commissioned compositions from world-class composers.

Princeton is a graduate of West Virginia University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Strategic Communications. During his time at WVU, Anthony was a member of The Pride of West Virginia – The Mountaineer Marching Band, serving as a section and rank leader.

Anthony has experience working with students of all grade levels, teaching private lessons since returning to the Pittsburgh Region in 2017.

Benji Vollmer
Benji graduated from St. Marys High School where he performed with the award winning color guard and dance team for 5 years. After graduation, he performed with the Top Hats for multiple seasons where he was a featured dancer. Benji has been a staff member and choreographer for Mt. Lebanon High School since 2018.