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Post by elsie on Jun 17, 2022 17:20:21 GMT -6
American Fork, Mililani, Clovis and West Salem are all bands without many competition in the area but they STILL are consistently some of the top bubble level bands in the country!
How do they do it? What encourages marching bands to participate in bands of america when there’s little to ZERO regional interest?
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Post by philodemus on Jun 18, 2022 14:37:47 GMT -6
My theory: they’re “the tip of the iceberg.” That is, the local competitive scene is stronger than we realize as outsiders, and these programs are the ones who have the resources to participate in BOA. For instance, there are a number of strong programs in Utah beyond American Fork.
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Post by marimba11 on Jun 18, 2022 19:36:46 GMT -6
American Fork, Mililani, Clovis and West Salem are all bands without many competition in the area but they STILL are consistently some of the top bubble level bands in the country! How do they do it? What encourages marching bands to participate in bands of america when there’s little to ZERO regional interest? Wando is halfway in that category IMO. If you consider the east coast states overall besides Tarpon, and maybe Cobb county, they are the only band in recent times able to make GN finals quality pretty much every year. Honestly like it was really the staff the made it so. It helps they have a big school and high family incomes, but I think it’s all about the staff and their vision. |
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Post by antroot on Jun 20, 2022 21:58:04 GMT -6
American Fork, Mililani, Clovis and West Salem are all bands without many competition in the area but they STILL are consistently some of the top bubble level bands in the country! How do they do it? What encourages marching bands to participate in bands of america when there’s little to ZERO regional interest? It was a very cool moment to see West Salem go to Grand Nats back in 2018. However, there are two bands as of 2021 that are beating them in the local circuit. Grants Pass HS from Grants Pass, OR, and Kamiak HS from Mukilteo, WA. There are good bands here that I think would put up a good effort at Grand Nats, it's just such a huge money/resource sink to be able to send a band/props/parents/food all the way to Indiana all the way from the Pacific Northwest. I'm a graduate from Kamiak H.S., and on staff with them currently. It would be a DREAM to go to Grand Nats, potentially as the first Washington band to do so. It's just a money thing. I heard West Salem's fundraising effort in 2018 was absolutely gargantuan. |
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jun 21, 2022 6:43:07 GMT -6
I am going to use an example from my state (Michigan) during the 1990s, particularly the latter half of the decade. While Michigan had and still has a large competitive marching band circuit in the state, Plymouth-Canton was simply in a league of their own in terms of the rest of Michigan bands back then (in some way like today how Tarpon and Blue Springs are at another level in their states, even though those states still have many good band programs). Plymouth competed in one early season BOA regional and the rest of their season was in Michingan right up until Grand Nats. So why did they do so much better than other Michigan bands at state and nationals. Well, at the time Plymouth had a much bigger budget than other band programs in the state. This allowed them to bring in some very well renown designers, instructors and directors who knew how to design a show and perfect it in such a way as to be able to excel at Grand Nationals. I suspect things are similar for some of these states or regions that have one band that just seems to be in another league compared to nearby band programs.
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Post by hostrauser on Jul 12, 2022 17:09:43 GMT -6
American Fork, Mililani, Clovis and West Salem are all bands without many competition in the area but they STILL are consistently some of the top bubble level bands in the country! How do they do it? What encourages marching bands to participate in bands of america when there’s little to ZERO regional interest? It was a very cool moment to see West Salem go to Grand Nats back in 2018. However, there are two bands as of 2021 that are beating them in the local circuit. Grants Pass HS from Grants Pass, OR, and Kamiak HS from Mukilteo, WA. There are good bands here that I think would put up a good effort at Grand Nats, it's just such a huge money/resource sink to be able to send a band/props/parents/food all the way to Indiana all the way from the Pacific Northwest. I'm a graduate from Kamiak H.S., and on staff with them currently. It would be a DREAM to go to Grand Nats, potentially as the first Washington band to do so. It's just a money thing. I heard West Salem's fundraising effort in 2018 was absolutely gargantuan. Sherwood H.S., OR is also on the rise. And before West Salem H.S. was the big dog in NWAPA, Southridge (OR) and Evergreen (WA) were also big-time players. |
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Post by antroot on Jul 12, 2022 21:10:03 GMT -6
It was a very cool moment to see West Salem go to Grand Nats back in 2018. However, there are two bands as of 2021 that are beating them in the local circuit. Grants Pass HS from Grants Pass, OR, and Kamiak HS from Mukilteo, WA. There are good bands here that I think would put up a good effort at Grand Nats, it's just such a huge money/resource sink to be able to send a band/props/parents/food all the way to Indiana all the way from the Pacific Northwest. I'm a graduate from Kamiak H.S., and on staff with them currently. It would be a DREAM to go to Grand Nats, potentially as the first Washington band to do so. It's just a money thing. I heard West Salem's fundraising effort in 2018 was absolutely gargantuan. Sherwood H.S., OR is also on the rise. And before West Salem H.S. was the big dog in NWAPA, Southridge (OR) and Evergreen (WA) were also big-time players. True! Sherwood began beating Kamiak starting in 2017, then Kamiak pulled ahead again by NWAPA Championships in 2019. Kamiak was fortunate to be one of the schools not to be hit too hard by covid. Members in 2019 were 105, and 91 in 2021. Compare that to West Salem that went from 100 to 66, Sherwood from 110 to 77, and Westview from 115 to 65. Grants Pass always has a ready supply of members due to them being the only high school in a regionally isolated city. I really hope these schools can recover their members in the coming years to bring some good band back to the PNW, and perhaps to BOA competition sometime soon. P.S. I believe the reason Southridge was such a successful band was because they had Todd Zimbelman, a phenomenal band director. If his name sounds familiar, it's because he's been the band director for West Salem since about 2010 I believe; as well as the band director for Grants Pass and The University of Oregon... this guy has been around. |
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