There's Always Next Year
Well, I'm back from the Indiana Regional band competition. Mom's place was on the way so I stopped and picked her up then stayed the rest of the weekend. The band competition was very good! All the bands did a great job. ISSMA rates their bands Gold, Silver, and Bronze. A band needed to score a Gold rating to qualify for the state competiton. The Bengal Brigade was second to perform so they were second to receive their rating.....drum roll.....GOLD!!! Yeeeessss!! We were sooo excited! They were on their game Saturday - but from what I've seen they've consistantly been on their game. Here is where things started to get just a little concerning. After the 5th gold-rated band got their rating we thought - 'poor rest of the bands who have to suffer through getting their ratings but knowing they didn't get a gold'. But little did we newbies know (however if we'd thought for even a second we could have figured) that any number of bands can receive gold ratings at the competition. A rating is a rating...regardless of how many bands achieve it. After all the bands received their ratings there were seven bands in all that rated gold. The rollercoaster was just about to begin. Now we hear the announcer say he's about to announce - in performance order - those going to state. Our Bengal Brigade was passed over. That let the wind out of our sail really quick...but....there's always next year.
The big news of the day however, seemed to be the most interesting part. In the spirit of good sportsmanship, in my last blog entry I didn't mention a certain band named Woodlan who won the state competition last year. It's one of those bands who eventhough they are in the same class as Bluffton, their band is probably twice the size. The classification is based on school size, not band size. I watched Woodlan perform twice last weekend, and eventhough I'm no expert I did do 4+ years of marching band. I know the difference between good and bad sound...and good and bad lines. I wasn't impressed. But by some stroke of weirdness (or downright unfairness) Woodland pretty much swept both competitions. I felt bad for Katie's band - they'd very much deserved more than what they got. And when the announcer says 'Can you say WOW??!!' when Woodlan is finished performing - one has to wonder if justice will be served. It baffled me.....so of course everyone completely expected Woodlan to qualify on Saturday - it's just been a given quantity. But...much to EVERYONE's surprise they did not! They too received a gold rating but they weren't one of the top 5 scorers. Here's the mean and vindictive part of me coming out.....my how the mighty do fall!!! :)
If you haven't ready my original entry on this subject - check out Bengal Brigade Marching Band.
10 Comments:
Joycie, thank you so much for the nice BLOG you wrote about the Bengal Brigade! It has truly been a fun and rewarding experience. Jay and I are so proud of kids. God has blessed them both with a love and talent for music and it is our job as parents to nurture that talent. I was concerned at first exposing her to being involved with high school kids, but I was pleasantly surprised at how they take care of the younger members. Katie was right in her element and I believe she matured quite a bit from this experience. Now she wants to take violin lessons........it's our responsibility to nurture our kids' talents, right? :) Anywho, with that said, we are proud of both of our kids and man, oh man, do they love their GUBBIE!
Violin lessons?!?!?! Are you sure your nerves can handle all that squeaking and squaking?? And...for those of you who don't know...Gubbie is me :) You know...the one they love! :)
Why do you have a problem with me and violin lessons!?! I should get rewarded for having to deal with the "squeaking and squaking" that comes from you!!!
Ya, I want in on the skwaking rewards too.
Hey you two....no teaming up on me!! And I don't skwak! And after all the nice things I've said about you....sniff....sniff......
Kate could probably handle violin lessons. But the rest of you probably couldn't handle the squeaking and squawking.
Gubbie????? and I thought my nine nieces referring to me as DSA brought interesting comments (DSA= Dear Sweet Aunt) Gubbie =? young children trying to say Joycie-- which is how Stephen got T-man by the way...his sister couldn't say Stephen
Actually the name didn't come from my niece or nephew. When I was young, my cousin couldn't say my name. She called me Garcie (yes...that's Garcie not Gracie) and it just evolved from there. I caught my nephew calling me Joyce the other day - actually he said "Joyce...uh I mean Gubbie". I thought it was cute - but I'm a sucker for those two. :)
I think this blog has strayed from it's intended purpose! ahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! Last night marching band started up for the new season. Hopefully we'll have more great news to report later! I think I'm as excited to get things started as Katie is. Our family loves following the band and getting to know the kids. They are a great bunch of young 'uns!
Hi webmaster! bsz
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