Band Comes Back With Multiple Awards

The Wills Point Tiger Marching Band attended its first competition of the marching season on October 3, competing at the Mesquite Marching Contest.

The band was awarded Best In Class for 3A Bands, Outstanding Horns, Outstanding Colorguard and the Percussion was second overall in the 3A Bands.

In Class 3A, Wills Point competed against Canton, Quinlan Ford, Commerce, Eustace, Crandall, Kennedale and Celina.

"Our expectations are always high and we expect a good performance, and one that is entertaining and competitive with the other bands," said band director John Young. "This was the first contest of the season, and on top of that we, as all of the bands in our area, have struggled with the weather and the inability to get outside and also perform at our games.

"All in all we as a staff were very pleased with our performance and the awards were a very nice beginning to our marching contest season."

Weather and field conditions threaten to keep the bands off the field again this Friday, which would be unfortunate for the fans from both Canton and Wills Point.

"We hope that we will be able to perform Friday night," Young said of Friday night’s game. "We are always excited to have the Canton Band and Wills Point together. We will perform a joint National Anthem for pregame."

"We are so very fortunate to have two great band programs within 15 miles of each other," he continued. "Our kids all get along and understand the work that goes into each other’s programs. We hope that the weather will cooperate and the field will be acceptable to march on. We both would like the opportunity to perform for our wonderful home crowd in Wills Point. It will be a great time to stay in their seats and listen to two great shows.

"After that they all need to go to the concessions to help the band boosters out. They do a great job supporting us."

This season’s show is entitled Mothership, and combines the music of rock band Led Zeppelin with The Planets by Gustav Holst.

The show has three movements. The first movement features Zeppelins’ Cashmere with Holst’s Mars. The second movement combines No Quarter and Saturn, and the show concludes with Stairway to Heaven and Jupiter.

The band will compete in an open contest at Little Elm on Saturday, which means there are no classifications, and Wills Point will compete against 27 bands in classes 3A, 4A and 5A.

The contest is in a preliminary and finals format, and ten bands will advance to the finals. The Tiger Band Marches at 2:30 p.m., with finals scheduled for 6:15 p.m.

The UIL Marching Contest will be on October 21 at the Mesquite Memorial Stadium. The Tiger Band performs at 4 p.m.