This past weekend, on Saturday, November 9th, our Bob Jones Competition Marching Band went to Alabama A&M University to compete in the USBands Southeastern Regional Competition. The band has worked diligently since July, and all their hard work paid off in this competition! The group won first place with a final score of 94.2, winning by a margin of 2.5 points against second place, Marion High School. The band also received all caption awards in their division, including Best Musical Effect, Best General Effect, Best Visual Effect, Best Colorguard, and Best Percussion.

The players were ecstatic to hear about their victory, considering the other bands and weather conditions they were up against. The rain pushed the performance back and canceled finals, turning the competition into a single one-and-done run. Freshman and clarinet soloist Ansley Rigby remarked, “People were running around hugging each other, a few were crying. This competition felt like a redemption–our hard work had finally paid off.” Almost every day of every week led up to this wonderful success, and the band can only expect more of it at their big competition on Friday.

This week, the band left Thursday morning to travel all the way up to Indianapolis to perform for Bands of America at the Lucas Oil Stadium! Every practice since July has been in preparation for this tremendous moment, and each member of our band is ecstatic for this amazing opportunity. Senior Nehemiah Dolman stated, “We are honored to showcase our performance to the world and hope it will astound them with what we have to offer as representatives of Alabama.” Our band will be the only one from Alabama competing in this national competition, and they will go up against over 100 other bands from across the country. 

The show the band is performing is titled “Momma Always Said,” and it is based off of the movie Forrest Gump, which centers around Forrest’s home in Alabama. Each note is meant to tug at your heart and establish a fascinating emotional connection with the audience. “It’s a show that’s definitely going to stand out,” said director Ms. Leigh Thomas. “No [other band] is going to do what we’re doing. [The show] is going to be memorable in more ways than one, which is always the goal.” Containing a plethora of songs and allusions to the movie, the band’s show is bound to do spectacularly. This competition will mark the end of the marching season, and the Bob Jones Band plans to make Band of America our “last rep, best rep.”