Mr. Lyons has studied wind band and orchestral conducting with Ric Hansen, Eric Becher, Frank Bencriscutto, Dennis Johnson and Roland Vamos. Mr. Lyons has also conducted the North Suburban Community Band served as percussion coach at the Minnesota Music Educators Association All-State Band, guest conductor at the St Louis All Suburban Honor Band Festival and has conducted several middle and high school honor bands.  Mr. Lyons is active as a marching band adjudicator in the summer and fall and composes and arranges music for bands in Minnesota, South Dakota, Kentucky and Illinois.

Mr. Lyons has been an active as a music adjudicator in Minnesota and South Dakota and is a member of Music Educators National Conference, Minnesota Band Directors Association, and the College Band Directors National Association.

Patrick Byrnes-Visual Design

Patrick- a native of Miami, Florida, attended The University of South Dakota with double majors in Music Education and Religious Studies. Patrick has been involved in the drum corps and marching activity for almost 15 years.

A graduate of Miami Southridge High School, Patrick drum corps experience is with The Colts (frontline), Minnesota Brass Senior Drum and Bugle Corps Minneapolis Minnesota Drum Major throughout the 90's then moved to color guard. He also marched Alliance of Miami, Miami Florida, and MBI's. Winterguard.

Patrick has been clinician and worked with high school bands across the country. From South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Florida. His expertise is in writing artistic color guard routines and well as musically sound drill and design. 

Currently Patrick is the color guard instructor for Sioux Falls Roosevelt High School in South Dakota- as well as the Drill Designer and Guard Director for the University of South Dakota Vermillion, SD. Patrick is a member of MENC.

Emily Savage- Color Guard

Emily Merriman- Color Guard

Emily is spending her 2nd season marching with Northeast Independent Color Guard in Jacksonville Florida. Emily is also expanding her involvement with Coon Rapids by becoming involved with both the fall and winter programs. Emily is also co instructing Minnesota Brass Drum and Bugle Corps guard programs starting summer of 2008.

She started out her marching career with the Irondale Marching Knights (1991 - 1995) in the band (3 seasons), drumline (2 seasons), and color guard (6 seasons, and color guard is the only one that stuck). She continued to march in college at the University of Minnesota (1995, 1996) and subsequently in Minnesota Brass Senior Corps (5 seasons), and the Colts Junior Corps (1997). Her winter experience includes marching with Royal Guard Independent Open (1997, 1998) Seneca Independent Open (’99, ’00, &’01) and, most recently, Chimeras World Class Color Guard (2003) out of Nashville, TN. 

Her main teaching experiences reside with Avid Independent (2002, 2003) and Champlin Park High School (1998 - 2001), where she was co-caption head for three years. Emily holds a degree in Human Resource Development from the University of Minnesota.

Scott Hirsch- Percussion Arrangement

Scott-is a 1993 graduate of Anoka High School. His performance experience includes the Winds Ensemble & Orchestra at the University of Minnesota as well as the U of M Percussion Ensemble. He also performed with the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra. His high school teaching experience since 1993 includes Anoka, Burnsville, Bloomington Kennedy as well as Champlin Park, including the Winter Percussion Ensemble the past 2 years. He has also been a member of the instructional staff with the Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps. Besides teaching, Scott has arranged the pit music for Champlin Park's Winter and fall marching programs. Scott is also the pit section leader for the Minnesota Brass Senior Drum Corps.

Check out a performance by Champlin Park Winter Drumline: Click Here

Scott Brown-Percussion Arrangement

Scott--is the Assistant Band Director at Dickerson Middle School in Marietta, GA and serves on the instructional staff and as co-arranger for the percussion section of the 1998 & 2002 BOA Grand National Champion Lassiter H.S. Band. Prior to teaching at Dickerson, he was Associate Director of Bands and Director of Percussion Studies at Pebblebrook H.S. in Mableton, GA.

Mr. Brown holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Western Carolina University where he was a member of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program . Scott was a member of the Carolina Crown Drum & Bugle Corps in 1994, 1995, & 1997 and has worked with marching and concert percussion ensembles throughout the southeast including the Spirit of Atlanta Drum & Bugle Corps, BOA Grand National Finalist Kennesaw Mountain H.S. (GA), BOA Regional Finalist North Buncombe H.S. (NC), and WGI World Championship Finalist Enterprise H.S. (AL). Mr. Brown is an active adjudicator, clinician, and arranger and is a member of the Vic Firth Education Team.

Lassiter 2002 drumline BOA warmups click here