The Adair County High School marching band concluded its season in impressive fashion last weekend with a Class A National Championship at Bands of America (BOA), in Indianapolis. This is the third consecutive year the band has taken home the BOA trophy.
“These kids just never quit,” says Director Tom Case. “We are so impressed with their determination, and they are deserving of being the Class A champion.”
Adair County took the field at Lucas Oil Stadium for prelims Thursday night at 10 p.m. and turned in one of its top performances of the season. The effort was noted by judges, who named Adair a semifinalist Friday night, ranking 35th out of the 100 bands in attendance and first among Class A bands.
“We thought it was a very solid performance – probably the best of the year up to that point,” says Asst. Director Austin Bralley about Thursday’s preliminary show. “Then we come out for semifinals early Saturday morning and had, without a doubt, our best run of the year.”
Despite a 7 a.m. performance time Saturday that required students to wake up at 3:30 to prepare, the energy was high and there were no glitches throughout the morning show. “When they do well, they know, and they knew coming off the field that they had done really well,” Bralley says.
After a short nap back at the hotel, the squad returned to the stadium Saturday evening for the awards presentation. In addition to taking home the Class A Grand Championship, Adair also swept first place in all three categories: best music, best visual, and best general effect.
“There’s definitely been some adversity throughout this season, but these students did an excellent job of overcoming it,” Bralley says. “We worked all season to improve the show’s design, and the final product was exactly what we wanted.”
It takes plenty of work and dedication to outdo so many of the country’s top marching bands, and Bralley credits this year’s senior class for setting the bar high for the rest of the squad. “It’s a small group, with only 10 seniors, but they’re very talented,” Bralley says. “They’ve won at least one – and some of them have two – state titles, and three national championships. That’s a pretty impressive run.”
Story by Wes Feese
Photo by Doyle Lloyd
