For their debut performance, the Rancho Cucamonga High School Winter Percussion won first place out of four groups, with a score of 81.795.
RCHS’s drumline hosted its first competition on the school’s campus and competed at RCHS for the first time since 2023. The competition was held over two days on Saturday, Feb. 14, and Sunday, Feb. 15.
Bands from 38 different schools performed on the Saturday show, while on Sunday, bands from 18 different schools, including RCHS, performed in the gym.
The RCHS Winter Percussion program’s show, “Controlled | Chaos,” was written by the Rancho Cucamonga Marching Cougars percussion caption-head Eric Shriver and arranger Jonathan Zuniga. Shriver described the show as a “juxtaposition of controlled versus chaos” and tried to stabilize the two separate concepts into one.
“Incorporating as many ideas as chaos as we can, and then combining that or backing it up against another moment of a little bit more control, and then playing off of those two ideas,” Shriver said. “And once again, just trying to balance both ideas back to back.”
Aside from Shriver’s interpretation, some other performers gave their own analysis of the show. Section leader, senior Jason Portz, and one visual performer, senior Andy Yoon, gave their opinions that were very disparate from each other.
“I think it takes two very wide spectrums that shouldn’t be put together into one,” Portz said. “Just that performance overall gives you the kind of chaos of the show, and it feels like a deep breath when it’s all calmed and controlled for a bit.”
On the contrary, Yoon gave his own opinion that was different from Shriver’s and Portz’s. He portrayed the show as an emphasis on the imperfections of humanity.
“I see the show as sort of like a human nature concept,” Yoon said. “We’re not perfect, we’re not machines or anything. I feel like the show is just our writers doing whatever they want with no limits, and they’re going to push that on the performers.”
This was the first competition of the season for the RCMC. They will compete in several competitions throughout February and March, with one of their final competitions, the Championship A & Open Class Finals at Coussoulis Arena, on Saturday, April 11.
Shriver said, “We’re still developing our show, so what we see now versus what we see in April are still going to be drastically different.”
