South Carolina 4A State Championships

A week ago, on Saturday October 22nd Robyn's Marching Band attended the South Carolina Upper State Championships.  This included 13 bands from the upper half of South Carolina in the 4A class.  There were several really good bands there and it was a ton of fun.  The top 6 bands from this competition would go to the state finals on the 29th of October and compete against the top bands from the south  half of the state.  Robyn's band, Nation Ford High School, ended up placing 1st in upper state.  Beating 2nd place by almost 4 points, which is a lot in marching band, and qualifying for the state competition.

Saturday October 29th, 2016 was the South Carolina 4A State Championships.  They played next to last and when they did, they played the best we have ever seen them.  It was absolutely fantastic.   But all the other bands also played really well, most out performing any of the other times that we had seen them.  We knew it was going to be a tight fit, but figured we were in the top 3 bands.  It ended up that Blythewood got High Music award and 3rd place, with a score of 91.15.  Then River Bluff got High Overall General Effect and 2nd place, with a score of 93.3.  And Nation Ford High Visual award and barely won 1st place in South Carolina State with a score of 93.6!  It was really amazing.

Here is a video of the state competition performance.  It does go in and out of focus for some reason, but it is still really fun to watch.  Now their next and last competition is November 10-12 in Indianapolis for Grand Nationals!

Jacksonville, AL Bands of America Regional

On Saturday 10/1/2016 Robyn joined the Nation Ford Marching Band and competed in the Bands of American Regional competition in Jacksonville, AL.  This was a really fun experience because there were bands there from at least 6 different states and they were all very good, talented bands.  It was fun watching the variety of shows presented.
Nation Ford ended up receiving the award for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Visual during the Prelim competition earlier in the day, as well as placing first in the AAA category overall.  They took the top 10 bands to finals that evening, and we were part of that.
Then in finals they performed last.  After a very long day, they were set to go on at 10pm central time, and since we are from South Carolina that is 11pm to these kids.  They still did very well, and ended up getting the awards for Outstanding Music, Outstanding Visual, and Outstanding Overall General Effect during the finals.  The also ended up winning Grand Champion for the whole competition regardless of school size.  They did really well.

After their prelim performance, the ladies sitting behind us said, "Now that is how a band that size is suppose to sound." and "The brass section was good, but the woodwinds were just as powerful, they were amazing."  It is quite fun to hear other people say such wonderful things about our kids band.
Here is the video I took of the Prelims (I didn't video the finals, I just wanted to sit and watch).  I have to admit it is a little hard to see.  I videoed it with a wide angle lens to try and get the whole field in.  Also, their show isn't quite finished so they only played 2 1/2 out of 3 sets in this show and they still have more choreography to add, but it is still pretty fantastic.  Our next competition is October 15th at another Bands of American Regional competition in Winston-Salem, NC.