30 September 2001

East Receives First Place, Class B at Ironton

On Saturday, September 29, 2001, the East Marching Band performed at Ironton High School's Buckeye Classic. The band received first place awards in Class B band and auxiliary, as well as second place percussion, Class B (congratulations to Minford on their first place percussion award).

In a day full of surprises, our good friends from West Virginia, Cabell-Midland, received Grand Champion honors, as well as Best Overall Percussion and Best Overall Auxiliary. In possibly the biggest surprise of the day, Dawson-Bryant received 1st Runner-Up to Grand Champion, achieving their highest overall placement (and possibly score) in recent memory. Rounding out the overall awards, Newark received 2nd Runner-Up Grand Champion honors.

For those that have been saying that the competition levels in south-central Ohio have been falling in recent times, Ironton's competition was apparently proof otherwise. An astounding number of bands qualified for OMEA State Finals. East, Green, Dawson-Bryant, and Ironton all received superior ratings; the first time in years that this many local bands have qualified this early. Judging from the quality of the performances on Saturday, quite a few other bands will soon be joining these ranks. Extreme congratulations to all of the bands for making Ironton a competition to remember!

On a quick note, East would like to also recognize the Green High School Marching Band on their outstanding performance. Their brilliantly conceived "Pictures at an Exhibition" (Mussorgsky) show was perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the day. Indeed, Green has been improving steadily in the last few years, but this year, the band has simply exceeded all local expectations in terms of their show's difficulty and the band's ability to pull it off. Thank you, Green, for helping show that a small band can be a force to be reckoned with, not to mention proving all of those that put down Scioto County bands wrong.