The competitive season for the Blue Streak marching band started out with an unexpected twist. The first competition was located in Winchester at Millbrook High School. At this particular competition, bands are allowed a clinic run, which is a run that doesn’t count for points. After the clinic run, a judge gives the band a few words of thought and notes to take in and think about for the competitive run. Harrisonburg was able to get their clinic run on the field, however during the scheduled lunch and watching bands time for Harrisonburg, a slew of thunderstorms rolled into the area, and the whole competition was moved indoors. Luckily, bands still had an opportunity to compete, but their competitive performance was simply playing in the school’s gymnasium. Harrisonburg had a strong musical run, and ended up taking first in their division, and second overall in the day to Stonebridge High School, who took first place.

After the chaotic competition at Millbrook due to the rain, Harrisonburg was ready for a performance at the Shenandoah Valley Marching Invitational, which they co-host with Broadway High School. SVMI is hosted at one of the high schools every other year, and this year it was at Broadway. Because the Blue Streak band is a host of the competition, they just gave an exhibition performance, which is when they performed their show without getting judged.

The weekend after that, the marching Blue Streak band traveled to Midlothian High School located in Richmond. On their way to Midlothian, one of the two busses the band took broke down on the highway about halfway there. The working bus continued on, and got everything ready for the performance. The broken down bus continued on, however they had to go a significant amount under the speed limit and therefore took a much longer time to arrive. The performance time for HHS was moved to a later time. Harrisonburg didn’t let mishaps fase them though, and took second place out of eight in their division of AA, to Colonial Heights High School.

The next competition for Harrisonburg was the following weekend, at Hanover High School in Mechanicsville. The band members were excited for the possibility of a smooth day, compared to the last weekends competition. The day turned out well for Harrisonburg; out of two other bands in their division, they placed first, and for individual awards they took a first for drum major, visual, and general effects awards.

The most recent competition for the marching band was Parade of Champions, which took place at Bridgeforth stadium on the JMU campus, the 19th of October. This is by far the biggest and most anticipated competition for the band students. There was a total of 47 bands competing at this years POC, and Harrisonburg  was in the top 15. They received a participation award of sixth out of eighth place in their division at the 2013 POC, but despite not placing in the top three, Harrisonburg had their best show they had done so far. They were also the smallest band in their class.

Marchers and directors were very proud of the season the band has had so far, and were just as excited to see how they would do this past weekend at VBODA, the state assessment, held at Millbrook High School. This performance was not a competitive one against other bands. Rather, the band was judged and given a rating that has the potential for setting the band on the route to becoming an honor band. Harrisonburg received the highest ranking of superior setting them off to become a four year in a row Honor Band.

Photos Courtesy of Diane Flick