Bulldog Band Has Excellent Showing at Maple Leaf Festival in Carthage!

On Saturday, October 21, the Bulldog Band woke up early to travel to Carthage, Mo for the 51st Annual Maple Leaf Parade and the 52nd Annual Maple Leaf Marching Festival.  The Band had to be in the parade line-up area shortly after 8:00 AM.  The band was #20 in the parade and only the third band to march through the parade, following Carthage HS and Carthage JH Bands.

​As the parade was wrapping up, the Bulldog Band got to enjoy a quick lunch and then had to start getting prepared for the afternoon's performance in the Field Competition.  Senior Drum Major, Caleb Alexander, went to the field for the parade awards, while the band members went to the warm-up location.  After a quick marching warm-up and playing warm-up the band was ready to compete.  The students, with the exception of Caleb, didn't have any idea the results of the parade and they wouldn't know until after our performance.

The Bulldog Band took the field, which felt like a wind tunnel.  The Band left everything they had on the field with hopes of getting to do it all again in a Finals Competition.  When the Band got back to the bus, they were told about their FIRST PLACE Finish in the Class 3 in the Parade.  It was found out later, that our band placed 4th Place overall in the parade, following: 3rd Place - Carl Junction HS, 2nd Place - Adina HS (Minnesota), and 1st Place - Lebanon HS.

Finally, the moment of truth came around 6:45 PM.  The Award portion of the evening!  The first award given out for Class A was for the Best Horn Line, which was awarded to the Bulldog Band!  Then came the awards for Best Color Guard, Best Percussion, and Best Drum Major, which were given to Seneca, Hillcrest, and Sarcoxie, respectfully.  All that was left was the rankings of Class A.  In Third place was Seneca HS; Second Place was Hillcrest HS; and First Place in the class and a chance to perform in Finals was given to The Bulldog Band from ELDO!

After the other awards were handed out for the rest of the classes, the directors had a meeting to decide on how they wanted to handle the incoming intense storms.  It was decided that we would not have a Finals Competition due to the weather, and the scoring from Prelims would determine the final order of the bands.  So, the Finals Awards went as such.

8th Place - El Dorado Springs HS - 155
7th Place - Nevada HS - 162
6th Place - Parkview HS - 163
5th Place - Webb City HS - 164
4th Place - Logan-Rogersville HS - 169
3rd Place - Carl Junction HS - 171
2nd Place - Aurora HS - 174
1st Place - Lebanon HS - 180

Sweepstakes (combination of Parade and Field Scores) - Lebanon HS

Overall, it was a very exciting day and we got back home before weather became an issue, so it was WINS all the way around.  I am proud to also add, that in our Preliminary Performance we beat 11 other High School Bands!  Five (Hillcrest, Seneca, Sarcoxie, Diamond, and Forsyth) were from Class A, four (Ava, Reeds Springs, Bolivar, and Mt. Vernon) from Class B; two (Joplin and Staley) from Class C, and one (Hutchinson, KS) from Class D!

I would say it was a GREAT Day to be a Bulldog!