Elkhart County bands were out in force Saturday, bringing home top honors in both the Kokomo Tournament of Champions and Penn High School Invitational.
The Goshen High School Crimson Marching Band got an early start Saturday, leaving Goshen for Maconaquah High School in Bunker Hill at 6:30 a.m. to get in some practice before turning out a first place performance at the Kokomo Tournament of Champions.
“We chose to go to Maconaquah so we could get in a little practice time without waking up our Goshen neighbors,” said Goshen Band Director Tom Cox with a laugh. “From there we headed up to Kokomo where I’m pleased to report we took first place.”
Besting three other Class A bands for the top prize, Goshen also secured a number of caption awards during the competition including Best Music, Best Visual, Best General Effect, Best Percussion and Best Pit Crew.
Not ones to sit on their laurels, the band members then took off for Penn High School in Mishawaka to compete in the 2009 Penn Invitational, where they turned out another strong performance earning them a second place overall finish out of eight Class A competitors.
“Homestead High School out of Fort Wayne was first, Goshen was second, and then Lake Central was third,” Cox said of the night’s strong competition, which also featured performances by Carroll, LaPorte, Elkhart Memorial, Warsaw and Portage high schools. “We were really pleased to beat Lake Central, because I think last year they were like sixth in the state. It was very close, but we stayed on top of them.”
Beating out big name bands seems to be a common theme for Goshen this year, with the band besting Penn High School’s notoriously strong Marching Kingsmen just last week to take second place at the Concord invitational. Lake Central ended up nabbing the competition’s first-place slot at Concord, a fact that is not lost on Cox.
“Our performance at Penn was a really big thing for us, because we’ve beaten some really big bands this year, like Lake Central this week and Penn last week,” Cox said. “Those are some of the best bands in the state, and Homestead has been first in state I don’t know how many times, so it’s really exciting.
“We just squeaked by Lake Central, only beating them by .25 points, but we’ll definitely take it,” he said.
With the Kokomo and Penn competitions now behind them, the Goshen band will once again head to Penn High School this weekend to perform in the Indiana State School Music Competition District competition.
“This week we start the qualifications for ISSMA state finals,” Cox said. “The first round is District, where you need to get a gold rating in order to advance, which is a score of 60 or higher.
“We’ve been at that level all season, so we’re pretty confident. Getting the gold rating would advance us to regionals, which is in Chesterton this year,” he said.
In the meantime, Cox said the band will just continue working on finishing their show and perfecting their performance.
“We still have to finish the show, which means learning more music, and doing a lot more drills, so we’re not done by any stretch,” Cox said. “But we’re super pleased with the kids. They’ve working really hard, and we feel great about our progress.”
Class B
The Northridge High School Raider Band also turned out a stellar performance in Class B competition at Penn Saturday, besting four area bands to take home the top prize as well as both the Best Music and Best General Effect caption awards.
Concord High School’s Marching Minutemen took second prize in the competition as well as the Best Visual caption award, followed by Plymouth in third, South Bend Adams in fourth, and the Wawasee Marching Warrior Pride in fifth.
“I was very happy with the kids’ performance,” said Northridge Band Director Brad Zook. “They had a very good practice in the morning and a great performance in the afternoon.”
Zook said he always goes into local competitions expecting strong performances, and Saturday’s competition did not disappoint.
“Oh yeah, the schools are all great competitors,” Zook said. “Concord is great every single year, and Plymouth is improving rapidly, so we knew it would be a tough competition.”
With ISSMA’s District competition also on the horizon for Nothridge this weekend, Zook said his goal at this point is to get the band’s show finished, polished and ready to present.
“This week we have to finish the show,” Zook said, “put all the rest of the marching on, and we’ll have a completed product by district,”
Class C
Not to be outdone, Fairfield High School’s Marching Pride battled its way to a Class C victory at Saturday’s Penn invitational, followed closely by a strong second place finish from the NorthWood High School Red Regiment. John Glenn High School’s Falcon Pride took home the third place prize.
The two Elkhart County bands also dominated in caption awards with NorthWood taking both the Best Music and Best Visual awards while Fairfield snagged the Best General Effect award.
“We were kind of surprised, but very happy to win the contest,” said Fairfield Band Director Mel Carpenter. “Our goal was to get the whole show on, and we did that. The danger in getting into an entire show is that the kids get tired, but they did really well, and we’re really pleased with the result.”
And apparently, so were the judges.
“We think we have a good show, and the judges enjoyed it,” Carpenter said.
Now, it’s a matter of refinement for District.
“... adding the little visual things that make a program unique and enjoyable,” Carpenter said. “It’s definitely more responsibility for the kids, but it’s also a lot of fun.”
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