It was a rare gathering of area bands at the Blue and Gold Marching Band Classic in Holdenville on Saturday. Five out of six local high schools competed -- Chandler, McLoud, Meeker, North Rock Creek and Stroud -- with Chandler and North Rock Creek making it into the finals and hitting the top five.
North Rock Creek came in second out of the 12 bands in the finals, with Chandler coming in fourth. NRC also snagged Outstanding General Effect while Chandler came home with Outstanding Drum Major for Karyss Campbell.
A total of 26 bands competed in the prelims, with NRC ranking first overall and in Class 4A Blue. The band also ranked first in colorguard for its class. Chandler ranked second in Class 3A Blue and fifth overall, also winning Outstanding Drum Major in its class.
Stroud ranked fourth in Class 3A White with its percussion ranking first in its class. McLoud ranked second in Class 4A Gold and Meeker ranked fifth in Class 3A Gold.
“We were super excited about it. We were really proud of the students,” said Heather Bellows, who co-directs the North Rock Creek marching band with her husband, David. “It was very encouraging to start off contest season like that.”
She added that the students were thrilled and happy to be in the top two. She said that while it is encouraging to to start the season off knowing that they are doing what they’re supposed to, they still have a lot of work ahead still.
“But going into it with that much success starting things off kind of gets the momentum going,” she said. “We have our closer to finish up and put on the field this coming week. So we’ve just got to work really hard to keep what we have strong but continue to add more.”
Bellows said the mindset is they are encouraged, but they also know that they’re not finished.
“I feel very good about it. I honestly wasn’t a 100 percent sure what to expect going into it,” said Zachary Fisher, band director at Chandler High School. “They performed extremely, extremely well. It’s first contest of the year, so, you know, you never quite know what you’re going to get.”
He continued that the band gave two really good runs and got a lot of a great feedback, which will help them going forward with the next competitions. Fisher said they have a lot of work to do before next weekend, and he hopes the weather will cooperate and allow more outdoor practice.
“We’re at Glenpool next Saturday, which is going have a lot of good, good competition at it. I think… not counting us, there are six or seven other schools that are going be at OBA with us, the state championships, a week after, that… are finalists at that contest,” he said. “It’s going be a really, really tough, tough field. So… I’m just hoping we make finals and are able to get two runs at it.”
Chandler will be competing at the Blue and Grey Marching Band Classic in Glenpool on Oct. 2 before going to the Oklahoma Bandmaster’sAssociation State Championship on Oct. 10 in Bartlesville and OSSAA Regionals on Oct. 14. Also competing at OBA State Championships in Bartlesville are Stroud and North Rock Creek.
NRC is headed to Tishamingo this coming weekend for the Chickasaw Festival Band Day Extravaganza.
Meeker and McLoud next compete at Konowa Band Day on Oct. 2.