Band Competition Weekend

We came back to Ohio and Stonelick State Park for Adler’s second year competing at the WGI Worlds Winds Championships. For winter, when it’s not possible to march a full band inside in a gym, the bands are divided into Color Guards, Percussion and Winds. At Lake Hamilton only the Winds compete on a national level.

Jamie flew into Dayton and I picked her up Saturday morning. The afternoon found the three of us cheering on Lake Hamilton during the preliminaries at Northern Kentucky University.

This was all we saw of Adler before he was whisked away for pictures, then back to camp and more practice before finals.

We went back to our own campground where spring was trying to make a showing, with redbuds and other trees in bloom,

and the earliest wildflowers out.

But despite the warm colors, it was pretty cold out. Oh well, we were here for the band.

Today was finals at The University of Dayton Arena. I remembered to take a few pictures. Here’s Adler as the band is moving into place.

Here they all are, almost ready to start.

Adler played with a group of five in this performance.

Four saxes and a flute. The girl behind and center is a dancer, their only one. Most groups had several, some had a lot!

This is a bit of video I took. It ends rather abruptly as I wanted to give my attention back to watching the band, not the screen. Sorry.

Here they are walking in for the awards ceremony.

There are a lot of kids and a lot of bands! Lake Hamilton had a good clean performance but only took fourth, which was last place in their group, because only four schools chose to compete in the Scholastic World Class, the highest level. I told Jamie I would be happy if they did a good run, no matter what the score, but I have to admit, I was disappointed they did not make third. Oh well, next year!