The Tracy Area High School marching band competed in the Tri-State Band Festival in Luverne on Saturday and placed 6th with a score of 60.4.
The band was placed in AA, band director Brittani Klaverkamp said, because festival organizers felt there were too many A entries in the parade.
“They lowered their grades 9-12 enrollment cut-off to 250 students to be considered single A, which placed a few more bands in the double A class,” she said. “Our 9-12 enrollment is 251, so by one student we were competing against double A. I told the kids that we need to compare our scores against the single A class to get a better idea of our performance. We would have been just a tenth of a point away from second place, and only six tenths of a point away from taking first place in single A.”
Still, Klaverkamp said, the band improved three full points compared to a year ago in what was its first official performance of the season.
“It would have been nice to have the Box Car Days performance as a first performance to get some of the nerves out, but they still performed well,” Klaverkamp said. “They have been working hard on their music and the routine and they seemed to have a good time at the parade.”
Klaverkamp said the routine got the percussionists more involved with some different movements. She said they will continue to polish the routine leading up to this weekend’s competition in Sioux Falls, where they will be placed in the Class A.
“My goal is just to improve our score from Luverne, and I know the kids can pull it off with a few more rehearsals of hard work and focus,” Klaverkamp said.