SHS Band Takes 1st at Geneseo Competition

[bandmom]

Thought I would post a little good news about the youngsters here in Streator:

The SHS Marching Band received 1st place awards yesterday at the competition in Geneseo.  The band received 1st place rankings for Winds, Auxillary (Color Guard), Drum Majors, and Field Competion in their class.  They were met at the outskirts of town and escorted to the high school by police and fire departments.

Way to go Marching Bulldogs!

[seaturtle43 in hostile forum]

awesome. My daughter isn't in band anymore but I was a band all through school. great job band members

[davesez]

Wonderful awesome

[Lucky1]

Congrats to the kids for the big win. Well done.

[evaryman]

Thank you for posting this Bandmom. That is great news. The children in those programs put in so much work and it is always a happy day when they are recognized for the efforts they have made.

[daviddr]

Congratulations to Mr. Karth and the kids in the band. My son played trombone when Mr. K came here and he took over a very good program and turned it into a great band program. I was there when they received their first ever first place award. Now they're winning on a regular basis and winning in multiple categories. The band program is one of the biggest positives this community has and we should all be very very proud of them.

[august]

congrats!!!

[bt]

Awesome job. Great work and dedication by those students and Mr. Karth!!!

[bandmom]

Absolutely! These kids and Mr. Karth put in countless hours over summer vacation practicing at the YMCA to begin their marching season. What a lot of people don't know is how they give up their Wednesday nights to practice as well as Friday nights to perform at the local football games. Many times, they perform at the game then get up early on Saturday morning to travel to a competition.

Their next competition is at U of I on October 12th where they will compete against six other bands in their class.

I hope the community can rally around these kids and let them know how much we appreciate and respect their hard work!


Go get 'em Bulldogs! U of I here we come!

[dumdave]

My former neighbor as well as my daughter's sister-in-law plays in the band.
She loves it, but it is a lot of hard hard work and time.  She also has excellent grades.
I have never heard a complaint. I also want to give kudos to her parents who support her 100%.

[bandmom]

My daughter is also in the band. As a parent to a graduating senior, I am proud of the work they've done and the improvement we've seen over the recent years. The marching program takes a lot of time, but my daughter does it willingly and also gets good grades. Being a part of the "band family" instills pride, dedication, and a good work ethic into these youngsters. They make life-long friendships and have learned to appreciate music.

I was able to be at the school Saturday night when the busses rolled in with their escort. The excitement on the kids' faces was priceless! It was nice to see them enjoy their win and be recognized.

[blondie]

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BAND MEMBERS AND TO MR. KARTH.

BUT TOO BAD THEY DON'T PARTICIPATE IN AREA PARADES AND SHOW OFF THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS. WAS AT THE DWIGHT HARVEST DAYS AND THERE WERE 21 BANDS -SOME AS FAR AS CHICAGO AND STREATOR WAS NOT EVEN THERE. TOO BAD!

BANDS MAKE A PARADE- LET'S MAKE STREATOR MORE VISIBLE IN THE FUTURE.

[seaturtle43 in hostile forum]

I've wondered that too. Back in my day *cough cough* my hs went in many local area parades

[chevypower]

I seen the firetrucks for an escort when they came in town (congratulations Streator band)

[bandmom]

Sept 30, 2013 20:19:50 GMT -6 blondie said:

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BAND MEMBERS AND TO MR. KARTH.

BUT TOO BAD THEY DON'T PARTICIPATE IN AREA PARADES AND SHOW OFF THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS. WAS AT THE DWIGHT HARVEST DAYS AND THERE WERE 21 BANDS -SOME AS FAR AS CHICAGO AND STREATOR WAS NOT EVEN THERE. TOO BAD!

BANDS MAKE A PARADE- LET'S MAKE STREATOR MORE VISIBLE IN THE FUTURE.

The Streator Band has participated in local parades in the past. They recently performed at Labor Day parade here in Streator and are normally a part of the Christmas parades when weather allows.  (Instruments and uniforms are too expensive to have ruined by snow, slush, and salt!)  However, traveling to other towns to perform at their parades isn't always possible since the school doesn't always provide transportation. When our band attended the Grand Ridge Days parade in August, the band members had to arrange their own transportation to and from the venue. 

Many of the competitions used to have "Parade" as a category for judging but have discontinued it due to the time restraints, expense, and difficulty in blocking off streets from traffic.  But whenever our band has the opportunity, they have been registered to compete in the parade category.
 
We participated at the Dwight Marching competition a few years ago (which is held over Harvest Days) and performed in the parade competition at the time as well.  Our team did very well that day!  We chose not to compete in the Dwight competition this year as our band normally only attends a certain number of competitions per year. (Had we gone to Dwight this year, our kids would have had back to back competitions the entire month of September, taking away EVERY free weekend from the kids!)   The director looks at the competition schedule and participates in the ones he feels allow the kids to get the most from each experience. (Some of the competitions hold clinics or have critiques from the judges that help our band make improvements to their show.)