“They’ve gotten a gold rating at every competition they’ve gone to and this weekend they’re going to be in Warsaw,” explained Phipps. “Because of the class we’re in with this group, they don’t have a first, second or third place or a state finals per se. What they get is they actually get division ratings. I can tell you that they’ve been ranking extremely high, but I can’t tell you the exact placements. They’ve been doing an outstanding job.”
The kids have put in a lot of hours learning their pieces for competition.
“These kids work, on average, six hours a week just in rehearsals at night – not to mention any day camps they do on Saturdays which average about eight hours. When they go away to competition, it’s not like they can go away, perform and immediately leave and come back – they have to stay for awards and those could easily be 12 hour days,” said Phipps.
Two winter guard groups have also been successful this season.
“Both of those groups are doing outstanding,” Phipps said. “This past weekend our junior varsity guard placed fifth in their class in the competition we went to and received a silver rating. Our varsity guard placed fourth in their class. Our varsity guard, this weekend, is going to state preliminary competition down at Decatur Central in Indianapolis and hopefully they will go to state finals two weeks later. Not this weekend but next weekend, our junior varsity guard will go to their division finals in Indianapolis and hopefully put on a good show.”
This month is Support Music in Our Schools month and Craige Phipps will be back with us next week to discuss music in education.
