Wawasee’s marching band earned a Bronze at regional competition Saturday at Chesterton High School. While the Warriors will not be moving on in competition, this morning Band Director Ken Brower said, “I felt they did really well.” To make it to the regional, Wawasee earned Gold in Open Class, Class C at the Indiana State School Music Association Scholastic Class Preliminary and Open Class Invitational Oct. 12 at Homestead High School in Fort Wayne. This was the first year since 2004 that Wawasee earned a Gold rating at that competition. The top 10 bands in the class competition at Saturday’s regional got to move on, Brower said. He said the band’s musicality Saturday was the best it’s been all season for Wawasee. Bands are judged on six different categories, including music ensemble. Wawasee did well in music ensemble, which he was pleased about. Since Wawasee is a smaller band, he said they usually don’t do too well in that category. “I was just real pleased with how well they did this year and how the whole group is starting to turn the corner,” Brower said. Over the last few years, he said the band has been “stagnant,” but this year he feels the band is starting to move out of that. With the marching band’s season over, Brower said Wawasee will begin its pep band season. Other area bands will be competing this weekend. Warsaw Community High School, Whitko High School and Manchester High School marching bands will compete at the ISSMA Scholastic State Finals at Lawrence Central High School in Indianapolis Saturday. Warsaw’s performance time is 5:30 p.m., Manchester’s band will perform at 1:10 p.m. with Whitko scheduled to perform at 1:36 p.m. 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/
