{"id":159409,"date":"2022-10-26T03:52:24","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T08:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=159409"},"modified":"2022-10-27T03:47:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T08:47:36","slug":"cougar-pride-marching-band-prepping-for-state-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2022\/10\/26\/cougar-pride-marching-band-prepping-for-state-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars ready for Sunday’s state finals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

History will be made at 4:45 Sunday afternoon at Piqua\u2019s Alexander Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when the Van Wert Cougar Pride Marching Band will compete in the Ohio Music Educators Association state finals for the first time ever. The band qualified for state<\/a> at the Versailles Marching Band Invitational, held October 8. Since then, the band has been working feverishly to prepare for the next level, including \u201ccleaning drill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Members of the Cougar Pride Marching Band spent some of Tuesday practicing for the state finals. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the state level there\u2019s even more attention paid to detail, so when we\u2019re cleaning drill, we\u2019re checking to make sure people are in step, that they\u2019re getting to the right spot at the right time and that there\u2019s just as much energy in the performance visually as there is musically,\u201d assistant band director Scott Turner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turner also noted that Chad Clum, who has served as a clinician for a number of marching bands around Ohio, has been has been helping with the visual aspect of the upcoming performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It isn\u2019t a matter of walking off the bus and marching onto the field. The entire show is a production and Matt Saunier has had a big hand in that part of it, including the sound system, design, props and ensuring everything gets from Point A to B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a theatrical show,\u201d Saunier said. \u201cYou have all of the elements to make the show work and so you have to have the crew that goes behind the scenes and sets everything up and make sure everything works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to Sunday,\u201d he added. \u201cI think I\u2019m most excited to be able to show off what we do because our season isn\u2019t just from July to November. Even now we\u2019re talking about what we\u2019re going to do next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mackenzie Jones and Ashlyn Stoller are Van Wert’s field commanders. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A key part of the performance will be the band\u2019s two field commanders, senior Mackenzie Jones and junior Ashlyn Stoller, who will split handling Sunday\u2019s show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones is a second year field commander and plays the alto saxophone and explained that during the summer, field commanders learn all the music and practice the technique on how to conduct, including practicing on the ladder to conquer any possible fear of heights. She also said duties grow during the course of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re confident the band will be confident, so it\u2019s kind of similar to a football game but not because the people who are in the audience are there to watch us and not the football game,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI\u2019m confident in the band and I\u2019m confident in Ashlyn and myself that we can do everything to the best of our ability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI definitely think I\u2019m more excited than nervous just because I like new experiences,\u201d Stoller said. \u201cThere is an aspect that I\u2019m a little bit nervous just because we\u2019ve never performed at the state level before but at the same time it\u2019s same exact performance, the same exact music, so there is a similarity in it. It\u2019s just somewhere new.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band will march onto the turf at 4:45 will allotted 15 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get about two minutes to set everything up and the performance has to be between six and a half and 11 minutes, and our show is about seven minutes,\u201d band director Bob Sloan said. \u201cRegulations \u2013 you can\u2019t go too short and you can\u2019t go too long and then we\u2019ll have about four minutes to pack it all up at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sloan also said a panel of six judges, made up of current and retired band directors, from around the state will decide how the band fared once the performance is complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor History will be made at 4:45 Sunday afternoon at Piqua\u2019s Alexander Stadium. That\u2019s when the Van Wert Cougar Pride Marching Band will compete in the Ohio Music Educators Association state finals for the first time ever. The band qualified for state at the Versailles Marching Band Invitational, held October 8. Since then, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 10:00:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159409"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159469,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159409\/revisions\/159469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}