Bands of America is a nonprofit organization that puts together a competition for high school marching band students and has been around since 1975. This year, on October 12, Lafayette competed along with 31 bands in Class A through AAAA from Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Missouri, and Pennsylvania . The BOA competition took place in Johnson City, and the last time Lafayette won a regional championship was 1997.

The BOA contest was an all day event with two rounds of competition. The first round all 31 bands competed and the second round the top 10 bands competed. . Other Kentucky high school marching bands that competed were Russell County HS, John Hardin HS, LaRue County HS, and Estill County HS. Estill County was named the class A champion.

The Lafayette Times staff is proud to announce and congratulate the Pride of the Bluegrass for winning first place in the competition. Lafayette scored an 88.800 and edged out Dobyns-Bennett from Tennessee by .05 points. Dobyns-Bennett is ranked 23rd in the nation according to HornRank. Lafayette also captured the Outstanding Music Performance and tied with Dobyns-Bennet for Outstanding General Effect. Dobyns-Bennett took the Outstanding Visual Performance caption.

Now, our band will spend the next two weeks preparing for the KMEA State Marching Band Competition at Western Kentucky University on October 26. The Lafayette band has won 20 state class championships.