Marauder band takes top honors for 25th time

Though first-place prizes in the Selma Band Festival parade and field show went to other schools, the Monache High School band proved victorious overall, winning the grand sweepstakes with the greatest number of combined points.

The performance group won the competition’s highest prize for the 25th time out of the 42 years the band has competed.

Drum major Missy Ellis said the senior students hoped to give band director Justin Adams a final victory.

“If we win today, we’ll be the first class that wins all four years in a row. We want to win it for him,” she said.

Adams, a 1992 Monache graduate, said he simply wanted the band to perform to the best of their ability, regardless of the end result.

“We can only control what we do doing the performance, not what a judge puts down on paper,” he said. “If we do that, we’ve had a really successful day.”

The band got an early taste of success after netting 91.7 points out of a possible 100 during the morning parade competition.

Ellis led the band, resplendent in blue and gold, down High Street as judges watched and deliberated from a raised platform.

Event organizers asked the crowds lining the parade route to retreat from the sidewalk curb to allow the Monache band room to maneuver.

The band performed the traditional street march “Standard of St. George.”

Band board of directors secretary Stacy Doyel said approximately 25 parents and supporters traveled with the band to assist with everything from food to costume prep.

“It takes a village,” she said.

Doyel said the long-standing tradition of Monache victories at the Selma competition provided the band with “a lot to live up to.”

“In the Shadow of Dragons” was the Marauder theme for the evening field show performance.

The band accrued 91.2 points in the second major scoring event of the day, missing first place by a 0.6 point margin to the behemoth, Reedley High School.

Doyel called the Reedley band, dressed in green, “our big competitor.”

The Monache band field show performance was physically — as well as musically — challenging, Adams said.

He said about half of the eight-minute performance was conducted at a very rapid pace of 180 beats per minute.

“Their field performance was just outstanding. It was the first time all year, with the level of difficulty that we’re demanding of the students, that they really nailed it,” he said.

Their accumulated score of the parade points and show points added up to 182.9 — and another grand sweepstakes victory.

Until next October, the oversized cup trophy will reside, once again, in Monache High School halls.

Other Porterville area schools participating in this year's festival were Granite Hills High School and Bartlett Middle School.

-- Contact Sarah de Crescenzo at 784-5000, Ext. 1045 or sdecrescenzo@portervillerecorder.com.field show