Cheshire High School Marching Ram Band 1990

The 1990 season of the Cheshire High School Marching Ram Band and Color Guard stands as a high point in the program’s early competitive years and a clear marker of the foundation that later produced national-level appearances. Under longtime director Ray Mancinelli—who founded the modern marching program in 1983 and led it for 27 years until 1994—the ensemble was already an established regional contender. That fall the band captured the Eastern Marching Band Association (EMBA) Class 4 championship, building directly on its 1988 Class 4/5 title and 1989 Class 4 crown. These successive EMBA victories placed Cheshire among the stronger programs in the Connecticut–New York–New Jersey circuit at a time when field-show competition was still growing in the Northeast. Music in Motion, Cheshire’s own home invitational, was then in its seventh year. Launched in 1984, the event had quickly become a major annual gathering of bands from across the region and a focal point for the town. The 1990 edition continued that tradition, giving local audiences a full evening of competitive performances on the high-school field. Exact repertoire and drill details for the 1990 field show remain scarce in publicly available digital sources. The era’s shows typically featured powerful brass arrangements drawn from classical, jazz, and theatrical sources—consistent with the program’s documented early repertoire (Firebird Suite, “Georgia on My Mind,” and similar works appear in surviving footage from the mid-1980s). Color guard work was already an integral visual element, with flags and rifles contributing to the overall effect that judges rewarded in EMBA contests. Community life around the band was equally strong. Neighborhood street practices, football halftime shows, and the annual Memorial Day parade were regular fixtures. Local memories and alumni groups still reference the 1990 Memorial Day appearance as part of the town’s long-standing tradition of the Ram Band marching through Cheshire. The discipline and competitive culture built in the late 1980s and early 1990s under Mancinelli’s leadership proved lasting. Within a decade the program would grow into a larger ensemble capable of national stages—the 1997 Presidential Inaugural Parade, the 1999 Tournament of Roses Parade, and the 2000 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Those later milestones rested on the foundation laid during seasons such as 1990. Primary sources for further research remain the 1990 and 1991 Laureame yearbooks (section photos, senior rosters, and show notes), digitized VHS transfers shared by alumni on local Facebook groups, and any remaining material from Mancinelli’s archives. The official Cheshire High School Marching Ram Band channels and community history groups continue to surface occasional photographs and performance clips from the period. In short, 1990 was not yet the era of coast-to-coast parades, but it was the moment the Marching Rams solidified their place as a consistent EMBA champion and community institution—setting the stage for everything that followed. Filmed by Ron Gagliardi Remastered by Richard " Reggie" Smith For Cheshire Today Online Magazine