The Western High School Marching Panthers were named the best of the nation’s small high school bands this weekend.
Western beat out 33 other schools from across the country Saturday during the Bands of America Grand National semifinals at Lucas Oil Stadium. It earned the title of class A national champion.
“It was a fantastic end to the season,” said Keith Whitford, assistant band director. “Because of its notoriety, [this competition] attracts the best bands in the country.”
The Marching Panthers competed against bands from places like Florida, Michigan, Oklahoma and Texas.
“These are some of the biggest and finest schools in the country,” Whitford said.
Western faced off with about 90 other bands in the preliminaries Thursday. Whitford said they had to wait until Friday night to find out they had qualified for the semifinals, though.
The awards ceremony ended late Friday, and the band had to turn around and perform at 8:15 the following morning.
Students loaded their instruments on buses Saturday and left for Indianapolis before 5 a.m.
“Everyone was kind of numb,” Whitford said. “They maybe had two hours of sleep.”
Their semifinals performance suffered a little bit because of it. It didn’t have the “punch and excitement” it normally had, the assistant band director said.
But students put a lot of work and a lot of heart into that show, Whitford said.
In the three days between the state finals and the national contest, students rehearsed at least 11 hours. Last Monday night, the band practiced in the Carmel High School stadium in the 32-degree weather, Whitford said.
“It was a lot of work this season,” he said.
The band didn’t make the overall finals, but it got the chance to perform a final time in the competition’s exhibition show.
Following their semifinals performance, Western band members filled an Indianapolis church to practice for the show and get some sleep.
Students crawled into sleeping bags for an hour of rest. Then they gathered in the church sanctuary to perform a warm-up hymn and rehearse the show one last time.
“I looked over at some of the parents, and there were tears streaming down,” Whitford said. “It was emotional. It was the last time we’d perform the show.”
The Marching Panthers played Saturday night to a cheering crowd that offered them a standing ovation.
Even though students weren’t being evaluated during that performance, it was their best show of the season, Whitford said.
That performance was all about celebrating. And they had a lot to celebrate, especially when they found out they were the winners in their class.
That was the icing on the cake, Whitford said. But it still wasn’t the most important thing.
“Our goal is never to win championships,” Whitford said. “Going after a trophy is a shallow goal. Our goal is to give the kids a good experience. Their goal is to outdo what they did previously.”
Local News
Western band wins national championship in Indy
Marching Panthers top nation’s small high school bands
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“We’re all in it together”
Peru Police Chief Jonie Kennedy recently joined another elite group after she was appointed Peru police chief in April.
Out of the nearly 450 municipal police departments in the state, she’s now just one of around seven female chiefs. -
Legislature had little taste for alcohol bills
When it comes to alcohol, the 2013 legislative session may be marked more by what it didn’t do to boost booze sales than what it did.
Repeating recent history, the General Assembly turned away efforts to expand Sunday alcohol sales and allow gas stations and convenience stores to sell cold beer – the latter of which has prompted a lawsuit. -
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Question Time: Dinner for four
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Bullying reporting now required
Oliver Jackson — known in the music world as DjBigO317 — remembers being bullied by the kids on his high school football team for being small.
He told his coaches about it, but they brushed it off and told him to do the same.
Now, his 6-year-old daughter is battling issues with bullies at her school in Indianapolis, and he won’t let it go.
He is on a crusade to end bullying, and he’s taking the message beyond his daughter’s school. -
The bully bashers speak out
Nineteen-year-old Trenton Lewis wants to change the message hip-hop music is sending to kids across the country.
The Kokomo High School graduate envisions songs that inspire change and songs that promote safer schools instead of ones that glorify drugs and violence. He wants to push the negativity out of music. - Bullying statistics - May 19, 2013
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State to spend $2 million to clean up voter rolls
Indiana’s bloated voter registration rolls, which officials say make elections more susceptible to fraud, will soon come under more scrutiny by the state.
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