Cougar Pride Marching Band off to state

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

It’s a first in Van Wert High School marching band history, as the band is marching on to state level competition.

The 58-member Cougar Pride Marching Band qualified for the Ohio Music Educators Association (OMEA) state finals for the first time during Saturday’s performance at the Versailles Marching Band Invitational, held at HB Hole Field. It was a local OMEA adjudicated event attended by 18 different marching bands.

“Each week in September and October events are held throughout the state, and we performed our show for a panel of six adjudicators who each offered comments on our performance,” band director Bob Sloan explained. “Each adjudicator then assigned a score for the band. Later that evening during the awards ceremony we learned that we earned third place out of the five bands in Class B.”

“Classification is determined by school enrollment,” Sloan added. “Later in the ceremony we learned that we were also awarded a ‘superior’ rating which qualifies us to perform at the state finals later this month.”

An excited Sloan noted he and the entire band staff (Scott Turner, Matt Saunier and Chad Clum) are proud of the band members for achieving this historic achievement.

“Our goal is to always give our very best effort and work our hardest every single day,” Sloan said. “Every time we step out onto the performance field we want to give our best performance. After the performance Saturday we all felt really great about our show. Their performance was awesome and after that the awards are the icing on the cake.”

“We were supported at the event by truck drivers, bus drivers, and chaperones that all need our special ‘thank you’ along with those parents that came down to watch their students perform” he continued. “We have so much amazing community support and are so proud to represent Van Wert every time we perform.”

High school principal Bob Priest noted while the symphonic band has qualified for state on multiple occasions, it’s nice to see the marching band make school history.

“I am extremely proud of what our marching band has accomplished this fall,” Priest said. “Our marching band has been participating in competitions for quite some time, but the emphasis has been on the experience, rather than the competition. I have always been grateful that we have students and an instructor who have been willing to give their time (weekends) for the purposes of attending these competitions.”

“We have an exceptionally strong tradition of scoring superior ratings in symphonic band but now, to receive this rating in marching band with an opportunity to compete at the state level is so very exciting, Priest added. “Our students and staff do amazing things, and this is another great example for them to be rewarded for their hard work and talents.”

According to Sloan, the OMEA state finals are at three different sites – Piqua, Hilliard and Medina October 29 and 30, and November 5 and 6. He said Van Wert is looking at the 30th at Piqua, with the time yet to be determined.

“Since we have never qualified this was not a date we had on our calendar, so I am sure some families are trying to shuffle some things around to make it happen,” he explained. “We’ll figure that out soon and then plan for whatever comes next.”