A week after finishing second at the Madisonville Invitational, Owensboro High School’s marching band won the Grand Championship at the Ohio County Invitational this past weekend. Similar to the majority of bands in the state of Kentucky, OHS had to battle learning their show, in extreme heat, leading to them entering the season feeling behind.
“Oftentimes, the heat index exceeded 104 degrees, so we had to go inside,” Owensboro Band Director Abe Barr said. “We only do a week and a half of band camp, but of those seven to eight days that we were together, we were inside for over half the day. Going into this season competitively, we felt a little behind, but the kids stepped up. We had a couple of nice weeks, and they worked really hard to get ready for their first two shows, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the result from last Saturday.”
This year, OHS decided on their show titled “This is Love” being a collection of songs that they hope are familiar to the audience and resonate love. The song list includes Elton John’s “Your Song”, Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”, and they close with a band piece called “Kingfishers Catch Fire”.
“Especially since COVID, we have been trying to take a crowd-engaging theme with our shows,” Barr said. “Playing music that people can relate to and identify with, and making sure that the arrangements are skillfully crafted, so it doesn’t come across as a college marching style. It is still artistic.”
This weekend, OHS will be competing at Daviess County, where 13 to 14 total bands will be in attendance, including the local schools of Daviess County, Apollo, and Owensboro Catholic. The majority of bands will be in the 4A class, the same as Owensboro. OHS will follow that up with a week off from competition before heading to Grayson County on Oct. 3rd and ending their season at Hopkinsville on Oct. 11.
Barr acknowledged that his band is still in the process of learning their show and will spend this week putting their closer on the field.
“I am thrilled with the band and the culture that we have,” Barr said. “The kids have been really hardworking, and attendance has been great. They have had to deal with quite a bit of adversity with the heat this year. I just couldn’t be more thrilled with them, and I believe they’re doing a great job this season.”
