At 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 26th, four buses made their way from the American Fork Main Street Exit off I-15 to American Fork High School escorted in honor by the City of American Fork Fire Department to an awaiting crowd of excited parents. The buses were carrying the American Fork High School Marching Band, home from their weekend tour to St. George and Las Vegas, where they competed in the UMEA Red Rocks Invitational on Friday night and the Bands of America Regional Championships on Saturday night. They took first place in their division at both competitions. Winning first place in Bands of America Regionals for the AAA division was a first for the American Fork Marching Band. All of the students were wearing their championship medals. On board one of those buses was our very own Jumble. We were not waiting with the excited crowd because we were at home waiting for a text message from Jumble letting us know that she was getting close to home. That text message never came because Jumble was asleep! Oh well. Niles and I went to St. George on Friday night to see them perform at the Red Rocks Invitational. (Thanks for babysitting, Rachelle and Sarah. And thanks for being willing to babysit, Michelle. We hope you are feeling better soon.) It was very exciting to be a part of that win. We saw some very good bands from California and Oklahoma perform as well as the usual Utah bands, who had all improved dramatically since the last competition at BYU. All the bands looked great so it was impossible for us to know who would win. It was thrilling to have American Fork win in all four categories and take first over all.
I would have loved to have a photo of Jumble with her medal to begin this post but she wanted to wait to take a photo. So I'll have to post it later. Jumble celebrated yesterday by sleeping for 15 hours straight. She was asleep by 4:00 p.m. and never woke up until this morning! This afternoon all the news stations will be at their rehearsal where they will perform in uniform one more time in Utah before going to Bands of America Grand Nationals in Indianapolis in 3 weeks. We are really proud of how hard Jumble has worked and are so grateful that she has an opportunity to be in such an excellent band. We would be proud of how hard she has worked no matter what band she was in, but being in a winning band makes it even that much more fun and rewarding.
5 comments:
That is so exciting! Way to go, Jumble!
I see you figured out how to get the blog list the way you wanted it - at least, I hope that's what you wanted.
Congratulations, Jumble! That is way exciting! Is the trip to Indianapolis a consequence of the win, or would they have been doing that anyway? If it's a consequence of the win, how does the band pay for it?
They were already going to go to Indianapolis--and each family pays for their own band member to go. They try to attend the Grand Nationals about every third year. This happened to be the year--so it is a good year to go since they have a shot at winning. Their final score at regionals places them 3rd in the nation currently. Their goal at the beginning of the season was to make the finals (only 12 bands chosen) at Grand Nationals. It looks like they will make that as long as they don't totally mess up. And yes, that's what I wanted on the sidebar--thanks for the e-mail.
YEAH!!!
Congratulations! We never got to go any big marching competitions when I was in marching band, but we did get to march at a Houston Oilers halftime on national TV once.
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