The Daviess County and Owensboro Catholic high school marching bands will compete in the state championships Saturday at Eastern Kentucky. The Owensboro High School band ended their season at Fall Break.
Earlier this season, the DCHS band won their class at the Maroon Classic and the Ohio County Invitational and were a finalist at the Murray State University Festival of Champions. The Band of Pride was also the reserve Grand Champion at the AAAA West Regional.
“We expect the DCHS band to give a high energy performance and be a crowd favorite,” DCHS Band Director Nathan Clark said of this weekend’s competition.
OCHS Band Director Ed Hauser said they’ve also had a good season, with one highlight being winning the Class A West Regionals last Saturday in Hopkinsville.
“The overall goal for the Marching Aces is to provide a fun and entertaining show—scores and trophies are just icing on the cake,” Hauser said. “Competition in Class A is very close this year. Our goal is to give a great performance and be content with whatever the scores and placement the judges give us.”
Tom Stites, Coordinator of Fine Arts at Owensboro Public Schools, said the OHS band chose to end its competitive season at Fall Break.
He said highlights from the year included winning Best Music, Best Visual Outstanding Colorguard Outstanding Percussion, and 1st First Place in Class at competitions in Muhlenberg County and Daviess County, along with Reserve Grand Champion Awards at three shows.
“This year’s OHS Marching Band show was entitled ‘En Fuego’ featuring a variety of Latin music,” Stites said. “Throughout the season, audiences both home and away were mesmerized by the scorching energy our students brought to the field. We wanted to celebrate our talented musicians by showcasing them as soloists. This year we featured Scarlet Head on flute, Colt Howard on saxophone, Christian Carter on trumpet, Danté Dillman on mellophone, Josh White on baritone, and Zach Leonard on guitar.”
