Marble Falls band earns superior rating at regional contest

DANIEL CLIFTON • EDITOR

MARBLE FALLS — A three-judge panel would be the ones who determined how the Marble Falls High School marching band’s season ended. The band, which includes the Starlettes dance team during marching competitions, started working toward this moment in late July and early August.

In San Antonio for the University Interscholastic League Region 29 Marching Competition on Oct. 15, it all came down to this one performance of their show, “Kaleidoscope.” Would they get the top score for a marching band performance.

“The judges, they look at everything,” band director Brad Behrens said. “They look how you move as a group, they look at your feet, they look at even how you stand and your shoulders.

“And they’re listening to your sound,” he added. “It’s everything.”

For the Marble Falls band, a 5A program that is not in a state-qualifying year, this was its chance to cap off a pretty good year by making it a great one.

“And they did it,” Behrens said of the students.

The band earned a Division 1 rating, or a superior, in the competition, the highest-possible mark at the regional level. Unlike other competitions and the area and state events (for those in advancing years), the regional contest doesn’t give a final ranking of bands, just ratings such as a Division 1.

It’s a competition driven by the intrinsic desire to be the best possible.

“They sounded great,” Behrens said of the band’s performance. “Everybody is so excited. It’s really something the kids earned.”

Behrens believes the key to the band’s Division 1 boils down to one main attribute.

“Plain old hard work,” Behrens said. “There’s nothing wrong with hard work. I hope that’s one of the things the kids take away with them from band. Hard work pays off.”

Though the band’s marching season is over, its year is far from just that. Members will perform at the remainder of the Marble Falls football games (the Oct. 21 game was the last time they’d perform “Kaleidoscope”), but they’re also preparing for regional band auditions and the Christmas show.

Down the road, the band is looking at a trip to Washington, D.C., in late May where students will perform in the national Memorial Day parade.

“The band hasn’t been to Washington, D.C., in years, long before I started here,” Behrens said. “And it’s one of the few places we haven’t been, so this year we looked into it.”

The tour company that arranges the band’s trips also raised the possibility of marching in the parade. But it isn’t something a band just signs up for.

“We had to submit a video, a biography, and some other things,” Behrens said. “(Parade organizers) reviewed it and then invited us to perform.”

The band will hold several fundraisers over the next several months to help defray individual costs. One coming up is a photo opportunity during the Marble Falls High School’s Fright Night Theatre. One of the band parents has a classic 1964 Volkswagen bus. It will be set up during the Fright Night Theatre on Oct. 26-29 and Oct. 31 for photos. It’s $2 to take your own photo and $5 for an instant picture with the classic bus. See the Fright Night Theatre story for times and location.

daniel@thepicayune.com