In October the Pride of the Blue and Gold marching band went and competed their hearts out at the Walnut Festival, the Valhalla Marching Competition in Springfield, and the Maple Leaf Marching Festival in Carthage. In order of competition, the band received: Best band overall, best percussion, and best drum major (Walnut), 4th place in the C division (Valhalla), and 4th place in class 3 (Carthage).
Moving on to a more individual level, we had many talented students make it into Honor Choir, All-State Honor Choir, All-District Honor Band, and SBU Honor Band. In Honor Choir we had Ben Roker, Emma Behkne, Jeffery Pastore, and Makenzie Stepp with Ben going on to All-State Honor Choir.
In All-District Honor Band we had Parker McClard (2nd Chair Jazz drum set), Corey Siegfried (2nd alt. Jazz piano), Kirtis Kuhn (21st Chair clarinet), Emery Smashey (6th chair horn), Aiden Asbey (1st alt. horn), and Arielle Morgan (2nd alt. bass clarinet). In the SBU Honor Band we had Emery Smashey (1st chair horn), Aiden Asbey (6th chair horn), Kirtis Kuhn (4th chair clarinet), Arielle Morgan (4th chair bass clarinet), Caleb Saylor (2nd chair tuba), Averi Gibson (20th chair clarinet), and Anthony Long (percussion). Congratulations to Emery (4th chair honorable mention, 18th overall), Kirtis, and Parker who went on to State auditions on Saturday, December 1st.
We hope to see more success coming from both groups this contest season and in the years to come!