The Woodford County High School Marching Band won second place in Taylor County this weekend in a high-stakes competition out of 13 teams.
WCHS’s marching band has had a very successful season thus far, with top-10 finishes in all three of their competitions. Since July, the WCHS marching band has been preparing for competitions starting this month, the most recent being their biggest success so far. Out of the 13 teams in their competition this weekend, 8 made it to the final round, one of which was Woodford County, who went on to win runner-up over the entire event. In the final round, bands of all sizes compete against each other, whereas in the preliminary rounds bands only compete against those who share their class. Class depends on the band or school’s size. Woodford County is in the 4A class, meaning in the finals they championed bands with close to double their numbers.
This year, the title of the over 6-minute show is Cadence of the Canopy, one which the students have enjoyed. This helped to increase the band’s confidence during this competition. In an interview, Evelyn Cecil, a 3rd year marcher said, “We kind of went into it knowing we have a really good chance of winning.” On top of that, at last weekend’s competition, our band out-scored Bourbon County High School Marching band, a historically successful band that has won several state championships in recent years. The show is divided into three parts, the final of which the band just added to the show 2 weeks ago. Part three is especially impressive because it involves the addition of trampolines to the show. This weekend was the first time the band has included this section in a competition. “I think it gave us more general effect points.” Lucia Rickard, a 3rd-year member of the WCHS Colorguard, said about the trampoline addition. Bands are scored in three categories, musical effect, visual effect, and general effect, each of which contributes to their overall score. For this competition, Woodford scored 76.3, where first place got 77.9 points and third received 72.00. WCHS also had the highest score in color guard out of all the teams competing.
This competition was unique for the band because the first snare was unable to compete, meaning another percussionist–9th grader Alex Trana–had to step in and learn the part that keeps the whole band in time in a matter of days.
The WCHS marching band has been practicing since July to get this show ready, putting endless hours into perfecting this incredible performance that Cecil and Rickard described as “unique”, “fun” and more “modern” than any other show they’ve performed.
