Vince Monocelli has been one of the activity’s most-admired drill designers since 1977, when he began teaching the Watkins Glen Squires junior drum and bugle corps in western New York. In the following years, he created memorable drills for such well-known drum and bugle corps on both sides of the border as the Cadets of Greece, Crossmen, Dutch Boy, Blue Coats, Rochester Crusaders and Empire Statesmen. He has been particularly successful as a Winter Guard International (WGI) instructor, winning four national color guard championships in a row in the mid-1990s. He taught a number of Rochester and area high school winter guards that made it to WGI finals: Bishop Kearney, Eastbury, Eastridge, Canandaigua Academy and Orchard Park. He was a color guard and marching judge with the New York Federation of Judges from 1979 to 1996, and judged marching for Drum Corps International (DCI) and Drum Corps East (DCE) from 1979 to 1981. His career in drum and bugle corps activity began when he played in the horn line of St. Joseph’s of Batavia from 1966 to 1972.
