In honor of Women’s History Month, the Madison Scouts are proud to feature stories from the first class of women in membership as well as the women on staff.
Rachel Montañez is from Mineola, NY and currently resides in Fort Worth, TX. Montañez is in her tenth year of teaching color guard and will be spending her second summer with the Madison Scouts.
“I felt like everyone at Scouts had my back at all times. If I needed help, if I needed anything, I knew I always had someone to call. I was constantly being asked how someone could help me. It just made everything better. The admin staff is top notch. They take care of everybody. There is not one person that goes without being accounted for.” -- Rachel Montañez
How did you get involved with the marching arts and subsequently the Madison Scouts?
M: Back in 2002, my brother was a wrestler at my high school back in New York and I hated being in a sweaty gym filled with boys that smelt so bad. My brother was best friends with the color guard captain and told me to go hang out with them. I’d be sitting there in the stretch block with the captain leading stretches with her. After that, I was in the theater program in middle school and the high school color guard came and performed this show about crash test dummies and I thought it was the coolest show ever. From there, I was like, “Alright, sign me up!” That was eighth grade going into ninth grade and the rest was history. I got into Scouts through a connection of mine with one of my techs from Cadets in 2013. I’m not the kind of person to reach out and ask about things but I decided to shoot my shot and ask if they had a spot on the color guard staff. I started to see the people that were getting introduced and I wanted to be a part of it. We did that November camp in 2019 and I had never felt so welcomed with a group of strangers. It was really cool to just walk in and fall in love with the people around after knowing them for less than 24 hours.
Tell me about your drum corps history.
M: I started drum corps when I was 14. I started with the Sunrisers which is a DCA corps based out of Long Island. I had no idea what I signed myself up for because my color guard director was also the caption head at Sunrisers. I was so confused the first summer. I had no idea where all of those people came from - I thought it was an extension of my high school. From there I remember going to a DCI show in 2009. It was Allentown and I remember just watching all of these amazing groups do all of their things. I thought it was insane and I wanted to do it. In 2013, I auditioned for Cadets and I marched there for three summers. My life wouldn’t have turned out the way it did without those summers. I did drum corps pretty much from 2009 until 2015. After that I hopped on to the staff side starting in 2017.
How does your experience in color guard up to this point impact your approach to teaching?
M: I was a terrible teacher when I first started. I would make kids cry and I didn’t understand that people learn differently. Over the course of the last decade, I’ve created this formula for myself of things that I liked of people who taught me and what I didn’t like. Years and years of trial and error and trying to figure out what works best. My approach now is a culmination of the past 10 years. Honestly, just learning from my mistakes. I remember year one teaching, I made this little tiny eighth grader cry. I had become the director of the program the next year and I watched this little, timid, eighth grade student blossom. By the end, we had this whole revelation that the only reason she stayed was because I learned how to teach better and cater to who she was as a learner. That will stay with me for the rest of my life because I never want someone to feel that way from something I love so much. I think I learned to teach more with love and compassion. It’s all about relationship building because this activity involves so much trust. If you don’t trust the people in front of you, you’re not going to do the toss-turn-around-catch-under-your-leg and instruction that they give you. Especially as the age gap gets bigger and you can’t do some of the skills you’re asking. If I have faith in my students and they have faith in me, I can give them information that will create a successful process. I feel like I’m very much an advocate of giving them a chance first. Letting them use their critical thinking skills and figure things out.
Tell me about teaching virtually through MadU. What were some of the challenges?
M: I am such a hands-on person. Because of the short amount of time we got together, I don’t think I really got to the full extent of how I like to teach. I am super hands on, adjusting bodies, moving hands, and going through the mechanics of things with the equipment still in someone’s hands. It became more of a time to build relationships. I had more conversations about performance and performance anxiety and all of these sorts of things that you don’t really talk about when you’re actually doing tactile things. I remember talking about getting over hating your uniform. I was never this tiny little thing in color guard and unitards were always something that stressed me out in high school. I wasn’t the most confident in what my body looked like so having conversations about how to deal with those feelings was pretty cool.
What brought you back for the 2022 summer?
M: I felt like everyone had my back at all times. If I needed help, if I needed anything, I knew I always had someone to call. It was constantly being asked how someone could help me. It just made everything better. The admin staff is pretty top notch. They take care of everybody. There is not one person that goes without being accounted for. That was a really big thing for me. I’m just looking forward to what the full experience is like.
What goals, both personal and for the corps, do you have for the 2022 season?
M: For me personally, this is my first full year with Boswell High School doing the whole Texas Marching Band thing. Building my home program and building community is so important. With Scouts, I want to build connections with people. For the 2022 season in total for Scouts, I just want the drum corps to see success. I think that all moving parts are working so hard to do all the things in their power to make this whole thing great. It would be really, really cool for them to see finals again. I think that’s the goal for everybody and it’s not even a competitive thing. It’s the sentimental thing of being able to perform that Saturday night. I want them to reap the rewards of working so hard for three years. We’ve put in work for three years and I want to see what we can do with all of this foundation built.
What is your favorite memory with the Scouts so far?
M: At November camp in 2019, I remember walking in to all of the staff and just fell in love with everyone that I was teaching with. I remember thinking that all of the people were just really awesome. It was crazy the amount of chemistry that was happening with the entire staff. I remember feeling really loved and appreciated and valued from day one. I make sure that that’s very, very present with anyone I teach with. I want them to feel valued and to want to teach this crazy activity in the first place. It was really cool that from minute zero I felt like this was it.
