Staff Writer
EMILY KALKA All six area marching bands competed in three competitions this weekend, with some making improvements on previous scores.
North Rock Creek High School marching band competed in the Sound of Southeast Marching Festival in Checotah on Oct. 5. In Class 4A Blue, they placed second and received first place in drum major, drumline and color guard. In the finals, they ranked fourth overall out of 16 bands.
“We feel really good about the performance. It was probably their strongest yet,” said Director Heather Bellows. “The students felt accomplished because it was their first time to put the whole show on the field in a competition. We had just finished the show earlier that week, and it was great to perform everything from start to finish.”
North Rock Creek will next compete in the OSSAA Regional Marching Contest on Oct. 23 in Enid.
Director Tony Thoma said he is proud of the work his fairly new and young Pride of Meeker did on Saturday at Konawa Band Day.
The band competed in parade and field and placed fourth out of five in their class for the parade class and fifth out of five in the field. However, their scores went up by ten points from the competition they did the previous weekend.
“We are incredibly young, and I feel like… there is improvement, and that’s the main thing we’re working on right now. Like I said… about 75 percent of our band is either first or second year,” Thoma said. “What the parents and what the admin, what everyone is seeing on Friday nights, we’re making a lot of improvements very quickly.”
He added that 10 points is a pretty significant improvement from just one week, so he’s impressed with his students. The Pride of Meeker will next compete in OSSAA Regionals on Oct. 15 in Oolagah.
The Redskins Regiment from McLoud High School and Spirit of Stroud also competed in Konowa Band The Pride of Chandler band. Photo/Jennifer Pryor Day.
Director Cody Tollison from McLoud said they placed third in 4A Small Field Marching and second in 4A Parade Marching.
“The performance could have gone better, but the kids are improving daily and will be ready for our next performance,” he added. The Redskin Regiment next competes in OSSAA Southeast Marching Band Regional in McAlester on Oct. 16 The Spirit of Stroud placed fourth in Class 3A at Konowa. Director Kevin Couch said they were bumped up a couple of classifications from last year and still did better.
“It was a pretty good day for us, and it was a good experience for our kids. A lot of them, that was their first marching contest in their entire career,” he said. “So they’re a really young group, and they’re growing and learning very quickly and we’ve got a couple more competitions to go to with this particular show.”
They will be traveling to Yukon to compete in the Oklahoma Bandmasters Association 1A-3A Championships. Couch said it is a very challenging competition and a bit stressful for the band. But they’re competing just to see how they do.
The Pride of Chandler traveled to Glenpool on Saturday to compete in the Blue and Grey Classic. It placed sixth overall in the prelims and fourth overall in the finals. They competed in 3AG and ranked second in class during the prelims.
They did very well in some more difficult contents, and I think it was a little more difficult than it’s been in the past, both because there were some newer schools at the Glenpool contest and also some much-improved schools,” said Director Zachary Fisher. “They were sixth overall after the prelims, so they moved up two spots with their finals run. So, I was really happy to see that.”
He added that the finals was probably their best run of the season so far. The Pride of Chandler is also heading to the OBA Class 1A-3A Championships.
“It’s not a super easy show, and I’ve been taking them to some hard competitions and really trying to push them, and they’ve really responded well. I’ve been very happy to see that,” Fisher said.