It’s been quite the year for the Santa Clara Vanguard.
In the final week of the 2018 Drum Corps International Tour, the Vanguard organization added two World Championship trophies — one by its World Class corps, and one by its Open Class corps.
But the hardware didn’t stop there.
The directors of both of those corps — Steve Barnhill of the Vanguard Cadets and Shaun Gallant of the Santa Clara Vanguard — also brought home honors, earning Director of the Year nods for their respective classes, as voted on by their peers.
For Barnhill, 2018 marks his second straight year as the recipient of the Dr. David Kampschroer Leadership Award.
“I got it last year as well, so to get it back-to-back is truly astounding,” he said. “I was humbled, and I’ve been humbled both times, I think this year even more so.”
As for Gallant, 2018 was just his second year in his current position at Vanguard. A member of the corps for five years, Gallant was a part of the corps’ instructional staff before becoming corps director in 2017.
“I’m extremely honored, extremely shocked, speechless,” Gallant said upon receiving the Dr. Bernard Baggs Leadership Award during the finale of the 2018 DCI World Championship Finals in Indianapolis. “Those are all things I would use to describe it. It’s a huge honor, and for this to be only my second year in this position, it’s quite a shock.”
In his two years at the helm, Gallant’s corps has earned one silver (2017) and one gold medal (2018), its first time winning either since before the turn of the century.
“Building off of the energy of last year that the corps had, we continued right through the audition season, we overcame some pretty large hurdles this summer, losing a food truck, in addition to some other things,” he said. “The corps and the kids didn’t feel anything and they just pushed right through. It’s been absolutely wonderful.”
“I wish I could take the credit,” he added. “Really, I’m just the face of a great team who really helped the corps through all those things.”
Another annual award presented at the DCI World Championships, the George Bonfiglio Chairperson’s Award is named in memory of the longtime director and founder of the 27th Lancers.
2018’s recipient, Colts director Vicki MacFarlane exemplifies the traits of leadership and service for which the honor is awarded.
“This was the best group of young men and women I’ve worked with,” MacFarlane said reflecting upon her corps’ 2018 season. “They’re just fantastic, our tour was pretty seamless and uneventful — I don’t say uneventful in a bad way, but not a lot of surprises, just incredible people that followed direction, gave every ounce of energy they had for 80 days. It was a great run.”