Way-Too-Early 2026 Show Choir Nationals Thoughts
- William Soquet
- 3h
- 6 min read
By William Soquet, Editor-in-Chief
The lineup for the 2026 edition of Show Choir Nationals has been released, and with it, the conversation window has opened. With little else to talk about before preview show season starts, what better time to offer thoughts on this competition?
The Lineup
Mixed
Brownsburg “Spotlight Singers and Company” (Indiana)
Carroll “Magic” (Indiana)
Center Grove “Sound System” (Indiana)
Donelson Christian “Legacy” (Tennessee)
Findlay “First Edition” (Ohio)
Fishers “Electrum” (Indiana)
Glenwood “Titan Fever” (Illinois)
Grenada “Visions” (Mississippi)
Homewood “The Network” (Alabama)
Loveland “By Request” (Ohio)
North Central “Counterpoints” (Indiana)
Southlake Carroll “The SLC” (Texas)
Womens
Brownsburg “Starlight Voices” (Indiana)
Carroll “Select Sound” (Indiana)
Center Grove “Debtones” (Indiana)
Fishers “Sound” (Indiana)
Homewood “Nexus” (Alabama)
Loveland “Allure” (Ohio)
North Central “Descants” (Indiana)
Musings on the Lineup
Full Slate on Friday: After having ten groups contest the mixed preliminaries on Friday last year, there are 12 entrants in the mixed division this year, which has been more or less the cap since 2020. It’s a stout slate, too, with eight choirs who were ranked in HomeRoom’s final 2025 rankings: (5) Center Grove, (9) Homewood, (25) Grenada, (29) Carroll, (69) North Central, (79) Brownsburg, (97) Fishers and (99) Loveland.
Indiana Invasion: Ten of the 19 total participants hail from Indiana, leaving Nationals more reminiscent of a competition like the Franklin Central Classic. Fishers and North Central represent the north Indianapolis metro, Center Grove the south metro, Brownsburg the west metro, and Carroll the Fort Wayne metro. It’s even more pronounced in Thursday’s womens division, where Loveland and Homewood are the only non-Indiana ensembles competing.
Plenty of Prior Success: Half of 2024’s finals field returns for another shot: Center Grove to defend its title, Grenada to cement its legacy after an upstart second place, and Findlay to prove itself after Kevin Manley left the program. Brownsburg, who was left out of 2024’s finals due to a scoring error, is also back. Reaching back to 2023, runner-up Homewood returns for the first time since Scott Thorne retired, and fifth-place North Central returns for the first time since Michael Raunick exited as director. Loveland was third in 2022 as well and returns for the first time since then. That’s already six groups that have made finals at Nationals in the four editions since the pandemic, and all will be looking to repeat.
Polled Predictions
HomeRoom Show Choir polled 11 of its staff members to give their predictions on how this competition will shake out. Of course, it is certainly a speculative enterprise, as few groups have revealed their 2026 themes publicly, much less selected their soloists, completed their show, or performed it in public.
Mixed Results
Grand Champion: Center Grove “Sound System” (BV, BC, Best Male Soloist: Jonah Smith, Outstanding Director: Jennifer Dice)
First Runner-Up: Homewood “The Network” (Best Female Soloist: Molly Pepper)
Second Runner-Up: Grenada “Visions” (Outstanding Performer: Kyler Pittman)
Third Runner-Up: North Central “Counterpoints” (BB, Best Crew)
Fourth Runner-Up: Fishers “Sound”
Fifth Runner-Up: Brownsburg “Spotlight Singers and Company”
Seventh Place: Carroll “Magic”
Eighth Place: Findlay “First Edition”
Ninth Place: Loveland “By Request”
Tenth Place: Glenwood “Titan Fever”
Eleventh Place: Southlake Carroll “The SLC”
Twelfth Place: Donelson Christian “Legacy”
Womens Results
First Place: Center Grove “Debtones” (BV, BC, Outstanding Performer: Anna VandeVoort)
Second Place: Fishers “Sound” (Best Soloist: Sophia Philpot)
Third Place: Homewood “Nexus” (Best Crew)
Fourth Place: Brownsburg “Starlight Voices”
Fifth Place: Loveland “Allure”
Sixth Place: North Central “Descants” (BB)
Seventh Place: Carroll “Select Sound”
Keys to Success
Each program, regardless of how they enter, will be looking to do the best they can at Nationals. Here is how they do that.
Brownsburg: Start strong, finish strong. Spotlight had a rough go of it early in 2025, missing finals at Homestead and placing third at Glenwood before breaking through to win Avon. In contrast, Starlight won womens finals at Homestead and took a caption in womens finals at Glenwood before sweeping at Avon and Noblesville. Both groups will need all the momentum they can get for strong performances and a shot at finals for Spotlight.
Carroll: Have an “on” year. The 2025 season was a monster five-win campaign for Magic, but 2024 only saw one result better than third. In contrast, 2023 was another “on” year, featuring three wins for Magic and a victory over Los Alamitos for Select Sound. Carroll will not travel to Indianapolis at all this year, so the expectations are sky-high for Fort Wayne-area dominance. If Jill Jeran, Eric Smead, Tara Barcon, Damon Brown, Greg Bussiere and the rest of the creative team can cook up good shows, Carroll will be a formidable foe.
Center Grove: Improve, if that’s even possible. Sound System’s win at Nationals in 2024 cemented them as the de facto choir of the year, and they parlayed that into an undefeated 2025. Debtones were undefeated in 2025 as well, the first time that happened in a full season since 2015. Until proven otherwise, Center Grove is the favorite (heck, Sound System hasn’t lost since February 25, 2023), and it is up to them to execute at the level expected.
Donelson Christian: Find its identity as a large group. Realistically, Legacy is not looking at making finals. However, the Nashville outfit grew a lot in 2025, stepping up to large mixed from middle mixed. They placed well, notching a third at Albertville and winning large mixed at Rome. Missy Cook is back for year 18 as director and Sam Mulligan is back for year six as choreographer, setting the foundation for Donelson to continue its progress.
Findlay: Have some drive and fight. First Edition ran a gauntlet last year, placing fifth, third and third at tough Ohio competitions and third at HOA Orlando. This year, the schedule looks a bit more forgiving, with opportunities for early season success at Medina and DeKalb. However, Marysville and Grove City await at Solon on March 7. FFE will need to find grit to be successful against those groups and to have a shot at advancing to Saturday’s final round at Nationals.
Fishers: Shore up the vocals. Electrum struggled to match pace with the top Indianapolis groups throughout the 2025 season due to an unpolished vocal product, culminating in a finals miss at Lawrence Central, where stronger vocal scores pushed Lawrence North to the evening round. Sound was also dethroned from the top of the womens scene in 2025, only taking two division wins. To make finals and place well, their vocals need to be on par with the best.
Glenwood: Build some momentum. Titan Fever only placed twice last season in a tough year. In 2026, they will compete in Illinois twice, Indiana twice, Missouri once and Wisconsin once before heading to Nationals. The group must maintain a rhythm through a varied competition season to bring their best product to Nashville.
Grenada: Become an undisputed titan. While the Southern competition circuit in 2026 remains a bit murky at this point in time, Visions will travel to Jackson Academy, Tupelo, Jackson Prep, Auburn and Biloxi before Nationals. They are likely to see most, if not all, of the top ten southern groups throughout their regional slate. Visions will need to establish themselves as a titan and put everyone on notice again before they roll into Nationals, not just after prelims.
Homewood: Forget what happened in the past. Seasoned group members will remember how tantalizingly close they were to dethroning Linn-Mar in 2023, but they will find themselves in a similar situation against a likely-undefeated Center Grove. The Network absolutely has the talent and execution to come out on top here, but they cannot limit themselves based on what happened in 2023 and need to go for it with no inhibitions.
Loveland: Play to the group’s strengths. Director Shawn Miller is no stranger to the Nationals stage, taking By Request to a championship in 2013. Senior Paxton Merz claimed seven Best Soloist caption awards last year as well. Loveland failed to hit the win column last season for the first time since 2010, but both By Request and Allure acquitted themselves well in tough late-season contests. Accentuating the good is their best path to success in 2026.
North Central: Trust the process. Last season was a transitional one for NC, with Michael Raunick stepping away from Counterpoints, Jared McElroy stepping up from Descants to CP, and Daria Weingartner stepping into Descants. The results, as might be expected, were varied, with both groups sharing considerable highs and lows. Both CP and Descants need to lean into their new leadership and trust their guidance to get them good results at Nationals.
Southlake Carroll: Learn. The SLC is a very young group (2026 will only be its fourth competitive season), they’ve never competed more than three times in a season, and have only competed outside of Texas once. Additionally, they’re fresh off a director change, with Casey LeVie stepping in for Jen Randall at the beginning of this school year. Finals are a very long shot, but Nationals presents an invaluable development opportunity for a young, growing choir.
Much will come to pass before these 19 choirs take the stage at the Grand Ole Opry, and the situation will have certainly changed. This isn’t the last of HomeRoom’s Nationals coverage, with more in-depth, technical analysis coming closer to the event.