Many students are aware of Thomas Worthington’s Marching Band, one of the largest and highest-scoring performing ensembles in the central Columbus area. What many aren’t familiar with is that Thomas Worthington has another performing ensemble that has been around for many generations of students. This ensemble is the indoor percussion group, one that exists now in 2025 as a temporary concert percussion group. Indoor percussion is an activity that eliminates the wind instruments and color guard from a marching band setting, and leaves just the front ensemble and battery instruments in a gymnasium. The group will perform a 6 to 10-minute show, where the battery (drums) plays difficult rhythms while performing drill moves around the floor, which is commonly covered by a plastic tarp that is often painted or digitally printed with a pattern on it, which helps to better convey a show theme. The front ensemble consists of mallet instruments such as xylophones or marimbas, drum kits, and other large percussion instruments that provide the more musical part of the show. Shows will commonly follow a theme, being significantly more theatrical than most marching band shows. These shows can include storylines, samples from music to provide context on an idea, or even a visual ensemble that can provide dance that pushes a narrative. Most indoor percussion ensembles compete under one circuit called WGI, or several state-level umbrella circuits, such as OIPA, which is the Ohio Indoor Percussion Association.
WGI was founded in 1977 as Winter Guard International, and was slated to be a yearly ‘Olympics’ of color guard performance, which stems from military color guard troops that would present the flags during wars and in ceremonial settings. Over time, color guard shifted into a very theatrical dance, including the spinning and tossing of silk flags, as well as plastic rifles, and metal sabers, often set to high-energy pop music. In 1993, WGI would add a new division and host the first indoor percussion competitions, where schools would compete against each other to win the first of many WGI percussion championships. Later on, scholastic percussion was split into 3 categories, World Class, Open Class, and A Class, for different sizes of ensembles, with World Class being the largest.
In the 90s, Thomas Worthington would begin their very own WGI program.
The group was run at a very high level in the winter seasons, pushing the drummers to their best. The group would have several competitively successful seasons, winning bronze and silver medals, before eventually winning the group’s first gold medal in 2001, taking the Percussion Scholastic A category. In 2003, the group would switch into the Open Class category, performing against ensembles of new skill levels and size. In their very first year in the category, the group would become the WGI 2003 Scholastic Open Champions. Following their two wins, the group would leave the WGI circuit, performing only in the newer MEPA umbrella of WGI. MEPA is the Mid-East Performance Association, a subsidiary of WGI for groups in the Ohio-Indiana-Michigan area. The group would only return to the WGI circuit in 2007 and 2009, taking a silver medal in the A Class category in 2009 with their show “Structural Evolution.”
In 2013, Ryan Kilgore was brought on board to the TWHS Percussion staff. Ryan Kilgore is a Capital University graduate and TWHS alum, who aimed to rebrand TWHS Indoor Percussion into WIP (Worthington Indoor Percussion) and combine the ensemble with Worthington Kilbourne High School. The group would now rehearse at either TWHS or WKHS and include members from each school. The group would continue to perform in the MEPA circuit through 2016, until the group took a year off due to construction interfering with rehearsal space in 2017. In 2018, though, the group would take the bronze medal in A Class MEPA finals with their show “Tribal Effect”, and took 5th the next year in 2019 with their show “Breathe”
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic ended the 2020 season prematurely. The show was titled “Deja Vu” and looked to be incredibly promising. Unfortunately, Ryan Kilgore would leave TWHS in 2021, and the program would not operate again until 2022, when Ohio State Percussion Director Mark Reynolds would restart the program, now without the inclusion of Kilbourne High School. The 2022 iteration of TWHS Indoor Percussion took their show “Bolero And Beyond” to MEPA Finals, as well as attending a WGI World Championships regional in Dayton. After 2022, the program was taken over by Josh Drulliard, a snare technician from the 2022 season. Josh enrolled the ensemble in OIPA, the Ohio-only circuit, for the 2023 season. The performers took their show “Opposites” to finals, and despite being newcomers, took the bronze medal in Class A. The following year, the group would take the gold medal in A Class with their show “The Grind” in the 2024 season.
In 2024, the school began construction to fully rebuild the property of TWHS, which included a lot of removal of traditional spaces used by TWHS Indoor Percussion. Similarly to 2017, due to a lack of rehearsal space with much of the school being highly crowded, TWHS Indoor Percussion is currently in a different form, one where percussion students can form their own small chamber groups with help from staff and other students. The percussion ensembles have performed at several festivals and adjudicated performances this year, and are encouraging non-percussionists to get involved with the program. Whether TWHS Indoor Percussion may reform to its traditional state is still unknown, but regardless of form, the names of WIP and TWHS Indoor carry a long legacy of excellence and pride for many generations of members, and shall live on through TWHS history for many more generations
