Marching band prepares for national tournament
November 6, 2008
Season concludes with celebratory banquet
After practicing since the summer, the marching band prepares to wrap up its season with the Bands of America (BOA) Grand National Championships, which will take place at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis, from Nov. 13 to 15, followed by its end-of-the-season banquet.
Kevin Carlson, drum major and senior, said via e-mail, “It’s been at the RCA Dome for about 20 years, so this is a really exciting year in the new facility.”
The competition starts out next Thursday and Friday with around 100 bands from all over the United States participating in the preliminary competition.
“We perform our field show, which students have seen at football halftimes, for a panel of eight judges to look at,” Carlson said. “They judge us in music, visual and general effect. (General effect) is the biggest part of the score at Bands of America competitions.”
After preliminaries, the judges choose 30 bands to compete Saturday for semi-finals. The judges then pick the top 12 to perform Saturday night for the finals.
Carlson said, “All the finalist bands come back out on the field and stand in formation through a fireworks show, a video looking back at the season, and, around midnight, the announcement of the national champion.”
Director of Bands Richard Saucedo said, “We want to reach our potential as a band. Whatever happens in the competition happens. We’re really excited about this year and about the students’ potential.”
On Nov. 17 after the national competition, the band will conclude its season with a banquet at the Fountains at 6 p.m.
During the banquet, all the members of marching band will walk across the stage and receives certificates and patches for their letter jacket. Then, the seniors from each section of the marching band will make speeches and give gifts to the directors.
“These gifts are sometimes heartfelt but more often make fun of the directors,” Carlson said. “The baritones made a video last year where they snuck into (a director’s) house and went through his closet and ate his food.”
“The highlight is the showing of a video made by the parents which shows the season from beginning to end,” Saucedo said.
In addition, Carlson said, “(The video is) always the really sentimental part, especially for the seniors.”
After working diligently and sedulously for months, the marching band will finally wrap up its season.
Carlson said that he hopes the school will come out and support the band.
He said, “I’d like to encourage anyone who’s only seen marching band at a football game to come down for national finals.”
Speak Your Mind
Tell us what you're thinking...and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
Multimedia/Links »
Video
Get the Flash Player to see this player.Photo of the Day
Photo Essays
Advertisement
Events in Carmel
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
Current Survey
Polls
Loading ...Recent Comments
Recent Comments
- Evan Dossey on Recovering from ‘The Dark Knight’
- cece on “Twilight” movie a disappointment to even the most devout fans
- Amazing Weight Loss Story on Dieting, weight loss views clash
- luk on “Twilight” movie a disappointment to even the most devout fans
- Kaity Just on 4-H involvement here not typical for students