4 Area Marching Bands Earn 'Gold,' Moving Them On In State Competition
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
FORT WAYNE – Four local high school marching bands came home this weekend from competition with “Gold” ratings and will move on to the next level, with another school earning a Silver. Manchester Community and Whitko high schools marching bands earned Gold ratings in Scholastic Class, Class B, with Triton High School earning a Silver at the Indiana State School Music Association Scholastic Class Preliminary and Open Class Invitational Saturday at Homestead High School in Fort Wayne. Warsaw Community High School earned a Gold in Scholastic Class, Class A, while Wawasee earned Gold in Open Class, Class C. In addition to the Gold rating, Warsaw also received “With Distinction” awards in music performance and visual performance for its 2013 program titled “Dreamland.” Whitko earned a “With Distinction” award in music performance. WCHS Tigers’ Pride Marching Band’s performance qualified it for the Scholastic State Finals, sanctioned by the ISSMA, according to a press release from WCHS Band Director Mickey Ratliff. WCHS qualified for state by earning a Gold rating in the Scholastic Preliminary Round. ISSMA Scholastic State Finals will be held at Lawrence Central High School in Indianapolis Oct. 26. The Tigers’ Pride’s State Finals performance time is 5:30 p.m., according to Ratliff’s information. Manchester’s band will perform at 1:10 p.m. at the state finals, with Whitko scheduled to perform at 1:36 p.m., according to ISSMA Office Manager Tama Poncar this morning. According to Wawasee Band Director Ken Brower, Wawasee now moves on to regional competition at Chesterton High School Saturday. Wawasee’s performance time is 2:54 p.m. “We’ve not taken a Gold rating at this particular competition since 2004. It’s exceptionally big for us. It’s been a goal of ours for some time,” Brower said of Wawasee’s Gold rating at the Open Class Invitational. To qualify for semi-state, he said Wawasee will have to be in the top 10 in its class at Saturday’s contest. “We’ve never gone before, so it would be even bigger for us,” he said. With just six hours this week for practice, Brower said they will add a few elements to their show, but it’s going to be a tight week. Schools have to earn a Gold rating to move on in competition, according to Poncar, so Triton will not be moving on. The 41st annual Indiana State School Music Association Marching Band season has a new classification structure this year, according to the ISSMA website. Indiana High School marching bands participate in the Festival, Scholastic or Open Class. The Festival Class is a non-competitive classification which places a greater emphasis on the musical aspects of the performance. The Scholastic Class was created to take into consideration band size as well as school enrollment. The Open Class is for those bands wanting to perform at the state finals at Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, through qualification through a regional or semi-state event. All bands, regardless of classification, receive a Gold, Silver, Bronze or Participation rating based upon their level of achievement, the website states. The ISSMA website is at www.issma.net/
