History has been made. Cougar band and Encore placed finals in the marching band competition called Bands of America. They placed 10th in the finals after 25 years with their musical performance called “When Life Gives You Lemons.”
“This is probably the first time in 25 years ever that we made it to the finals,” senior Scott Little said.
The founder of BOA Larry McCormick’s goal for BOA was to “provide educational opportunities for music students and bands world wide.
“Us making It to finales helps to get us to state” Little said.
The Cougar band and encore in the prelims placed 9th place with a score of 76.150 .For the finals, they placed 10th with a score of 75.350.
For musical performance, the Cougar band and encore got a 15.20. For the Visual Performance score, the Cougar band and encore got a 15.15. For General Affect, the Cougar band and encore got a score of 45.00.The reason why BOA is important is because BOA promotes high school music education. Specifically marching bands in high school competitions including regional and national events.An interesting fact about, BOA was founded in 1975 and Cinco was founded in 1999 and after all that time the Cougar Band and Encore never got to the finals until now, thanks to the expertise of the band directors Jones, Stevens, and Riviera.
According to the BOA webpage, BOA Championships “are an opportunity to demonstrate excellence, and to evaluate the achievement of your students, as well as the progress of your program on a national level.”
Now then the judges judge on two things music/affect, and visuals the judges for music/affect are Susan Smith, Clif Walker, Jay Webb, Greg Williams.
Furthermore the visual judges are Ira Jenkins, Randy Nelson, Damon Padilla, and head judge. Richard Saucedo.
It’s truly amazing what the Cougar band and encore can do and when I saw the video of the band making it to the finals for the first time I was so happy for the band.
“My friend Matthew was so excited, he almost shook me to death. Also I saw Mr. Jones almost cry as Ms. Jones hugged him,” sophomore Elianna Garcia said.
