THE ECHO

By Amelia Humphrey // Reporter

After months of work, learning, repetition, sweat, tears, laughter, frustration, and overwhelming cheers, the Avon Accents rode on crowded buses back to Avon High School bearing their first state championship win in school history.

The undefeated show “Let the Games Begin,” themed around the Olympics, had won five competitions en route to the ISSMA State Show Choir Finals, where they took home first place over Plainfield Belles et Beaux. To add to their hardware, the advanced show choir also won several caption awards.

But that was last year. The Accents now prepping for their 2026 season look noticeably different from the state champion group. Award-winning members such as Luke Sigler, Ashden Warren, and Peyton Smith have graduated. And many new members are making their Accents debuts.

The new Accents come from a variety of backgrounds. Some, like junior Teonna Smith, come from the all-girls group Attraction. In her two years with the group, Attraction placed runner-up in back-to-back years, including a heartbreaking upset loss to Plainfield Femmes Fatales at state finals in 2025.

When asked what her favorite things about Attraction were, Smith mentioned “all the new friends I made, and the connections I made with other people.”

Comprised of 56 girls from all four grade levels, Attraction provides numerous opportunities to meet new people.

All-girls groups like Attraction compete in a different division than mixed groups such as Accents. Smith noticed that this connection exists even outside the scoring sheet.

“I liked, at the competitions, the positive vibes we would get from other girl groups,” Smith said with a smile.

Accents and Attraction have different choreographers and show designers. Smith noted that the choreography in Accents is quite different than that in Attraction.

“It’s harder retaining this stuff, low-key, because it’s kind of harder stuff,” she said. “But I feel like, if you just keep practicing, it’ll come.”

Other new members come from years with other choirs. Sophomore Derrick Pierre spent one year in the beginning men’s chorus, Oriole Choir, before beginning Accents and Chamber Singers, the advanced concert choir, this year.

“Oriole Choir, I’m pretty sure it’s the smallest choir that we have,” Pierre said. “I feel like our shows were more, I guess, limited, like what we could do, what we could sing. I liked it a lot, especially the Christmas season where we actually got to do a little bit of dancing.”

Pierre mentioned that the choreographed number for the Christmas show is what pushed him to join Accents his sophomore year.

Unlike most other new members, Pierre is starting two choirs at the same time.

“It’s a lot of songs to memorize at the same time,” Pierre conceded. “But it’s not bad. It’s got that choir fun to it. Rehearsals usually aren’t on the same day as well.”

Although only having a semester to draw from, Pierre loves the new experience.

“I like it a lot,” Pierre said. “I think it’s, I don’t want to say easier, but it’s not as challenging as I thought it would be to learn the new dances and stuff. When I auditioned and had to learn the dance for that, that was very nerve-wracking. But now we can actually prepare.”

A couple new members joined from crew. A show choir that utilizes props, lights, a backup band, and costume changes, as most do, needs a capable backstage crew to help facilitate the show. Nassim Foudali, a junior, was a crew member for Accents’ and Attraction’s shows before joining this year.

“A lot of people did costume changes,” Foudali said, referring to the crew members who helped the singers change costumes as well as putting the costumes in their respective boxes afterwards. “I stuck to the band. I helped with Donna [Johns], who is our bass player, and I helped her with loading her stuff on and off.”

Foudali had never participated in choir before joining Accents.

“When you’re watching it as an audience member, you’re like ‘Whoa, that’s sick, that’s so cool.’ And then you would go in, and you would do it, because we practice a lot, and you would see why they’re so good, why they made state,” Foudali remarked.

Joining a high-level choir without having done anything like it before brings difficulties. Foudali mentioned sightreading in particular.

“It seems really hard, sightreading,” Foudali said. “But to me, it seems like it makes sense.”

Of course, a couple of the newcomers are freshmen. Though Accents isn’t open to freshmen girls, due to it being a varsity ensemble and the presence of an all-girls group, it does welcome a few freshmen boys every year. One of those boys this year is Aiden Harrop.

“The first few days of high school were a little rough because I couldn’t find my classes very well, but obviously I adapted,” Harrop said.

Harrop says that Accents has been a great, enriching experience so far, and it gives him something to look forward to every day.

“At the very beginning of the year, I was extremely nervous just to come to class, because it was like 60 people that I didn’t know. The only person I knew was [fellow freshman Kaden Rhodes] at the time, but now I know everybody, almost,” Harrop said. “Everybody was nice, so it made it easier to adapt.”

Harrop came in with a bit of show choir experience already, particularly having participated in Showstoppers, a show choir camp for kids up to eighth grade.

“It helped with the mentality of, ‘I need to get the show complete,’ because it was only five days of practicing to get like three and a half songs done,” Harrop said.

Harrop has been more prepared for choreography and the atmosphere of a competitive choir because of this camp.

Every new member has someone they look up to, someone who has served as a role model or helped them adjust to Accents’ dynamics.

“There was one rehearsal that I missed, and Sophia [Long] had messaged me to come to SRT and practice the partner dance,” Harrop said.

“Eli Neal has been a great teacher and dance captain,” Foudali said.

“Kamryn [Rhodes]. She’s awesome,” Smith said.

“Zach [Sigler], he always has that energy,” Pierre said. “And Gabe [Richter], he was the first person that I didn’t know that really stuck with me through the whole first month.”

Harrop, Foudali, Smith, and Pierre are joining a big group with big expectations. Accents is feeling the pressure of living up to last year’s success as they seek to earn a second straight state title. For newcomers like these four, entering such an atmosphere can be daunting. But with the help of prior experience, supportive classmates, and loads of rehearsal, all of the new Accents can replace their anxiety with focus and preparation—not to mention loads of fun along the way.