On October 12, 2024, the Lafayette Marching Band competed at the George Rogers Clark High School (GRC) Invitational at the Cardinal Stadium against 17 other bands from across Kentucky.
The band’s show is titled “Four Nations” and is based off of the series “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. Throughout the show, the band goes through the storyline of the series with different instruments representing a different nation. By the end of the show, all of the nations are taken over and become the fire nation.
At GRC, the competition was divided into two different sections, with the preliminary performances being between the individual classes, and the finals performances between all 10 of the bands that made finals. Schools are categorized into classes based on a formula combining school size and the number of people in a band, so because of Lafayette’s size, they are sorted into Class AAAAA.
In the preliminary competition, Lafayette placed first in Class AAAAA out of three bands in that class. During finals, Lafayette placed first overall and won the awards for Best Music Performance, Best Visual Performance, and Best General Effect. Those awards are obtained by showing excellence on all accounts, which is incredibly hard to do. Marchers are tasked with lots of hard body movements while playing to add character to the show.
Competition days like this are challenging. The band starts very early in the morning at Lafayette with a 7:30 a.m. call time. They rehearse at Ishmael Stadium until 10:30 a.m. From there, they spend the whole day traveling and competing with very little downtime.
Robert Bishop, the head band director at Lafayette, on ways to keep the kids motivated with these tiring days stated, “Setting high expectations and a tradition of excellence, and creating a strong sense of community in the band helps for motivation.” Mr. Bishop explains how through these tiring days, the strong community that the band establishes can help marchers stay motivated with strong encouragement from their peers.
This competition was a great win for the band and we are very excited to see how these last couple competitions play out. The band is preparing for their State Competition this coming Saturday, October 26, so stay tuned for more information about how that plays out.
