Three of four caption heads return to Phantom Regiment, while alumnus Will Schulze takes the reins as visual caption head.
Christian Carichner will be back for his fifth year as brass caption head, while Derrick Shannon (percussion) and John Leonard (color guard) return for a second season.
Previously, the organization announced a new visual design team of Tony Hall as coordinator and Dwight Emmert as drill designer, as well as new brass arranger Will Pitts. They are joining a design team that returns Dan Farrell (program coordinator), Bret Kuhn (battery arranger) and Rob Ferguson (front ensemble arranger).
Schulze marched with the corps in 2005, ’07 and ’08 and was on the visual staff from 2010-12. He was a band director at F.J. Reitz High School in Evansville, Ind., for 5 years before turning his focus full-time to visual instruction and design for the marching arts.
“Will brings years of expertise, both from his time with the Regiment and elsewhere, and we’re all looking forward to seeing him in this new role,” said Farrell, who has been program coordinator since 1993 with the exception of 1998-2000.
He attended College-Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati, where he studied music education and jazz studies. He lives in Evansville with his girlfriend, Larysa Euteneuer, whom he met in 2008 Phantom Regiment. She marched in the guard from 2008-11.
Carichner is assistant director of bands and professor of tuba and euphonium at Iowa State University, Shannon is a percussionist, instructor and clinician in the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana region, and Leonard is color guard director at Marcus High School in Texas.
Kuhn, who is back for a third season as the percussion battery arranger, is on the faculty at Prospect High School near Chicago, Northern Illinois University and Vandercook College of Music in Chicago. Ferguson, the director of Matrix Percussion as well as a designer and consultant for numerous programs, returns for a second season.
