Bands of America

Josh, Keri, and the entire Skyview marching band went to the Bands of America Competition in Flagstaff, Arizona last Wednesday through Sunday.

They traveled in 3 chartered buses for the 13 hour drive, with every seat occupied by students, leaders, or chaperones - 184 total people.

Driving through the night, Wednesday turned into Thursday when they went to Castles and Coasters amusement park in Phoenix. There they rode roller coasters, go carts, bumper boats, and other rides,

and consumed 60 large pizzas!

Thursday afternoon they checked into their hotel in Flagstaff, with six students per room, each with 2 full beds and one roll-a-away bed. For the girls' rooms, this meant 2 per bed - but for the guys' rooms this meant 3 slept in a bed, and 3 on the floor! Fortunately for Keri, the adults were only 3 per room.

Friday, after warming up in the morning, they went to Coconino High School

to practice their performance on their football field for about four hours. Then they went out to Sizzler for a buffet dinner, which of course led to an informal face-stuffing competition!

Saturday started early with breakfast, warm-up, and stretching - trying to calm their nerves,

and then they traveled to the Skywalk Dome

at Nothern Arizona University.

BOA includes 21 invitational regional marching band competitions across the United States, with the top three finishers at each one advancing to the Nationals. The Flagstaff BOA included 23 bands from numerous western states, with Skyview being the only Utah school to be invited! http://www.marching.com/events/boa-regional-championships/

Skyview performed fourth at 11 am. Each band is allowed only 15 minutes on the field, which allows only 5 extra minutes to set up and remove equipment, with their 10-minute, 3-movement, 90-formation performance sandwiched in between!

Hundreds of hours of practice and preparation over the past seven months all came down to this -

and their performance was excellent, with only a few minor mistakes.

Then they had to watch and wait for the results. Finally at 4:45 the top ten bands were announced in no particular order, and the screaming started when the 9th band announced was Skyview! This meant they would perform again that evening, drawing the first slot. That left just enough time for Dominoes to deliver 50 pizzas for dinner,

and be ready to perform at 7:30. Their evening performance was exceptional, with very little room for improvement! Although they did not advance to the Nationals, accomplishing their goal of making it to the BOA Regional finals made their whole season worth it, and left them with an indescribable feeling of satisfaction.

They made it back to the hotel by about 11:30 pm, but sleep did not come easy after all of the day's excitement. Sunday morning they were on the road by 8:30 The long ride home was tempered by the sense of accomplishment and relief of completing a successful season. Keri and Josh arrived home at about 9:00 pm - both very glad to be in their own beds. I'm fairly certain that sleep came just before their heads hit the pillow!