Over 7,000 Bring Sweet Sounds of Spring to Wildwood

WILDWOOD — While the robin’s song may be the harbinger of warmer weather for many, here in Wildwood it’s the sound of band music that marks the unofficial first sound of a new season.
The first weekend of May brought twirlers, color guards, dancers and musicians en masse to the Wildwoods Convention Center for the 42nd Annual Tournament Indoor Association Atlantic Coast Championships.
The tournament has called Wildwood home since 1973, said Timothy Kondziela, National Judges Association (NJA) director. This year the city is acting as home for more than 7,000 performers, along with their families and supporters.
The lure of a state-of-the-art convention center along with plenty of accommodations is not the only reason the tournament returns to the city each year. “It’s the ocean, the Boardwalk, the amusements and the total package that we put together for the performers,” explained Kondziela. “It offers everything.”
“This tournament is one of the sure signs that a new season has arrived,” said Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. “We are fortunate to be able to open our city to these talented students and their families. A lot of this music is a prelude to a lifelong appreciation of music. Many of these students also visit the city through their participation in drum corps which occurs in June. That event has been coming to Wildwood since 1946.”
With the majority of teams representative of schools throughout the eastern United States, several teams represent independent studios. Ages range from kindergarten students, dubbed “cadets” to college and beyond. Kondziela said the tournament is specifically geared to indoor, not marching, bands. “This is what we consider our indoor association season.”
In addition to the indoor band competition, the NJA hosted a jazz band competition. “We just began to bring this back into light three years ago,” Kondziela said.
According to Kondziela, the tournament started with 17 units on a Saturday. He was one of the performers in Wildwood’s 1973 inaugural tournament. “They did a preliminary competition to get them into rating order and they came back on a Sunday to compete for the championship. Since then our high water mark has been 250 units.” The tournament now attracts performers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New York and Ohio.
Filling the Convention Center with sound and movement of 236 units, the tournament now calls Wildwood its second home, said the director. He noted this year’s event filled over 600 local hotel rooms over a four day period.
“We’re scheduled through 2020 with Wildwood,” said Kondziela. “It’s been here for a long time and we can’t wait to come back next year.”