The Madison Scouts are pleased to announce the Color Guard Instructional Team for the 2020 season, including:

Jennifer Leseth, Caption Supervisor/Designer

Chelsea Arenas, Caption Administrator/Choreographer
Tykeem Rainey, Caption Coordinator/Choreographer
Sarah Rillo, Caption Manager/Choreographer
Meghan Brackett, Choreographer
Lucas Schmidt, Choreographer/Instructor
Alexandra Geiger, Instructor
Mark Istratie, Instructor
Joshua Menken, Instructor
Rachel Montanez, Instructor
Tanner Wetzel, Instructor

Jennifer Leseth, Caption Supervisor/Designer

Jennifer Leseth is a Chicago native with 30-plus years of performance, instruction, and design experience in the pageantry arts. Jennifer started performing at an early age and her passion for the art grew as she performed with color guards such as Destiny (IL), Guardsmen (IL), State Street Review (WI), and Escapade (OH) as well as the Phantom Regiment (IL) and Cadets of Bergen County (NJ).

Her experience with drum corps includes serving as color guard caption head for Bluecoats (OH), Crossmen (TX), Madison Scouts (WI), Carolina Crown (SC), Phantom Regiment (IL) and Santa Clara Vanguard (CA).  On a high school level she has had the honor of leading the color guard programs at Marian Catholic (IL), Plymouth Canton (MI), Spring High School (TX), Winston Churchill (TX), LD Bell (TX), Flower Mound (TX) and Lincoln Way Community (IL). In addition, she served nine years as the color guard coordinator for The Army All American Marching Band as well as a long time consultant/choreographer with The Spirit of America Marching Band and winter percussion.

Some of her more current work is with The Calgary Stampede Show Band/Winter Guard and on the instructional team of the 2019 Bluecoats Indoor Winter Guard. She is currently a freelance designer, a clinician, and adjudicating. Outside of pageantry arts, Jennifer works for The Park Ridge Park District and is a certified event planner.

Chelsea Arenas, Caption Administrator/Choreographer

Chelsea Arenas is the current color guard director at Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Chelsea was a featured performer with the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps from 2008-2011, where she helped capture their 10th DCI World Championship. Arenas then continued on with the Cadets as a staff member. Chelsea has also performed with the WGI World Class Champion Pride of Cincinnati during their 2010 and 2012 seasons. Most recently, Chelsea performed in Japan with "Blast! the music of Disney" during the summer of 2016.

Tykeem Rainey, Caption Coordinator/Choreographer

Tykeem Rainey is an active choreographer and technician in the San Antonio, TX area at Ronald Reagan High School and Winston Churchill High School. He was a member of the color guard at the Madison Scouts from 2008-2011. Upon aging out, Tykeem served as an intern and staff member from 2012-2014. During the off season, he had the opportunity to march with Impact Independent in Northern Virginia from 2008-2012 and won the WGI Independent A Gold Medal.

In 2014, Tykeem had the opportunity to perform in the Tony and Emmy Award winning production, “BLAST!”, which toured prefectures throughout Japan. From 2015 to 2018, he performed and choreographed “Mix it Up,” a staged theme show located at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. In the spring of 2017, Tykeem earned his Bachelor’s Degree (with Honors) in History (concentration in Caribbean Slavery) from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Tykeem’s most recent summers were spent with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps in 2018 and the Raiders Drum and Bugle Corps in 2019. Currently, he choreographs and provides technician services to color guards and winter ensembles such as: Hickory High School, Green Hope High School, Round Rock High School, Union High School, Origins, George Mason World, Onyx World, and Violet Crown Percussion.

Sarah Rillo, Caption Manager/Choreographer

Sarah Rillo is a choreographer and consultant currently living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She began her performing arts career in 2007 with the Pride of Broken Arrow from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. After graduating in 2009, Sarah went on to perform with Crossmen in 2010 and 2011 and aged out of the Blue Devils in 2012. She also performed with Onyx World in their 2014 winter season and was given the opportunity to perform internationally with the Blue Devils International Corps for the 2015 season, touring several countries in Europe including Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Rillo was a part of the Maggie Allesee Department of Theater and Dance at Wayne State University in Detroit, where she was given the opportunity to perform in several pieces including a piece by Jarell Gordy, a professional dancer for the Detroit Pistons, as well as a piece by Ron Brown entitled “Dancing Spirit”, which was originally written and performed by the Alvin Ailey Dance Company.

Sarah began her teaching career after graduating high school in 2009. Since then, she has directed, choreographed, designed, or consulted for high schools around the U.S., for both their fall and winter seasons. Sarah has also acted as a technician and choreographer for different drum corps including Legends, Academy, Phantom Regiment, and Crossmen. Sarah is in her third year as a choreographer/instructor at Broken Arrow High School, as well as a choreographer for several other high school marching bands this fall. Outside of color guard, Sarah enjoys spending her free time watching Netflix and going on adventures with her fiancé, John, and her dogs, Elly and Neil. She is excited to be joining the team at Madison as they welcome in the first group of female performers.

Meghan Brackett, Choreographer

Meghan Brackett is a color guard instructor in the Indianapolis area. Currently, she serves as the Color Guard Director and choreographer of Brownsburg High School in Brownsburg, IN. Formerly, she held the position of color guard director, designer, and choreographer for Decatur Central HS from 2014-2019. She has worked with multiple Indianapolis groups including Carmel, Center Grove, Northview, and Fishers. She is passionate about the growth of the activity, her students education and has dedicated the last 13 years to training, educating, and inspiring the youth of the marching arts.

Meghan began her marching career with the Center Grove high school color guard where she marched from 2003-2007. Her drum corps career began in 2007 with the Carolina Crown, where she aged out as guard captain in 2010. After taking a season off in 2011, she returned to Crown in 2012 and 2013, where she served as a full-time weapon tech.  In addition to marching drum corps, Meghan also performed with WGI groups such as Etude in 2008, and Pride of Cincinnati in 2010 and 2012. 

Lucas Schmidt, Choreographer/Instructor

Lucas Schmidt is currently in his first year as the director of the College Park High School Color Guard in the Woodlands, TX. He was previously the director of the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park Guard from 2013-2019. In his five years with Plymouth-Canton, the color guard rose from Scholastic A to become a World Class color guard, medaling in Open Class finals along the way. He has also worked with Interplay World in 2017-2018 and Ancora Winterguard in 2013.

Schmidt’s performance career includes membership in world-renowned organizations, starting with the Plymouth-Canton Color Guard from 2009-2012. He was a marching member of the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps (2011), The Cavaliers (2013), Ancora Winterguard (2010-2011), Zydeco Winterguard (2012-2014), and Pride of Cincinnati (2015).

Alexandra Geiger, Instructor

Alexandra Geiger is from southeast Michigan and joined the color guard at Lake Orion High School in 2012. Her independent marching career began at Juxtaposition World Winter Guard (’17, ’18, ’19) and her DCI marching experience includes Phantom Regiment (2017) and the Bluecoats (2018, 2019). Alexandra has been teaching scholastic groups in the southeast Michigan area since 2016 and is currently a senior at the University of Michigan, pursuing a degree in Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity.

Mark Istratie, Instructor

Mark Istratie began his career in pageantry in Farmington Hills, MI. Upon graduating from Harrison High School, Mark went on to perform with Ancora Winter Guard (2008-2009) and with the Madison Scouts (2008-2010). Mark then continued his career in Michigan, teaching many different ensembles including Harrison High School, South Lyon High School, Novi High School, Lake Orion High School, Oakland University Winter Guard, Ancora Winter Guard, Farmington United Winter Guard, Farmington United Percussion, Ovation Independant, and West Bloomfield High School.

Recently, Mark relocated to San Antonio, Texas where he served as the Color Guard Director at Judson High School. While in Texas, Mark was also a part of the technical staff for Origins Color Guard (Austin, Texas).

Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from Madonna University and also holds current performance positions with the Michigan Opera Theater, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Opera MODO, and Opera San Antonio. Currently, Mark is the Color Guard/Program Coordinator at West Bloomfield High School and Color Guard Director at Plymouth-Canton Educational Park in Canton, Michigan.

Joshua Menken, Instructor

Joshua is currently a graphic designer for FLASH Visual Media in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After graduating from Coweta High School, Joshua marched with the Crossmen in 2012, and the Cavaliers in 2013, 2015, and 2016. Joshua has also performed with Eclectix Winterguard from 2013-2015, the Pride of Cincinnati 2017, Bluecoats Indoor 2018, CGT Dallas 2019, and will be performing with CGT Denton for the 2020 Season.

Rachel Montanez, Instructor

Rachel began her colorguard career at Mineola High School in NY in 2008. She marched with Mineola for four years, in both their marching band and winter guard, and had the opportunity to perform in WGI Scholastic A Class Finals in 2011. During her time at Mineola, she continued to march independently in DCA with the Long Island Sunrisers in 2009 and 2011, and the Connecticut Hurricanes in 2012. Upon graduation, she went on to march DCI with the Cadets from 2013-2015. Aside from her drum corps marching experience, Rachel performed in WGI with Alter Ego IW in 2013, 2017, and 2018, and Fusion IW in 2019.

Rachel has been able to extend her passion and involvement for color guard through teaching. She has had the pleasure of teaching great programs that include: Mineola High School (NY), Dartmouth High School (MA), Stony Brook University, Ridgewood High School (NJ), Oñate High School (NM), Alamogordo High School (NM), the Oregon Crusaders, and the Crossmen. She graduated from Molloy College with her B.S. in Mathematics and is currently in graduate school at Hofstra University, working towards her M.S. in Computer Science.

Tanner Wetzel, Instructor

Tanner is an Arizona native who has been involved in the marching arts for over a decade. After graduating from Gilbert High School, Tanner began his independent performing career with the Madison Scouts (2014) and went on to march with Santa Clara Vanguard (2016, 2017), where he aged out earning the George Zingali High Color Guard Award as well as a silver medal. In the winter season, Tanner performed with FeniX Independent (2015-2018) and Paramount (2019), where he also earned a silver medal. Most recently, Tanner was a cast member of Blast! The Music of Disney’s latest Japan tour (2019). After teaching and designing for various groups in Arizona, including Gilbert High School, Tanner has relocated to Indiana to work with Northview High School. When Tanner isn’t performing or teaching, he is pursuing a communications degree through ASU.