On Saturday, October 18, 2015, the Alliance Middle School and High School bands participated in the Old West Marching Band Competition. The bands have been participating in this competition for thirty plus years. The bands compete in a parade portion as well as a field portion. There are two middle schools that parade march, and nine high schools that parade march. Some schools do not have a field marching portion, which left the high school band to compete against three other schools.

Both the high school and the middle school received superiors (1’s) in the parade portion. The high school also received a superior in the field portion of the competition. The high school performed their show “Taking Flight” that includes “Into the Clouds”, “Counting Stars”, and “Learn to Fly”. “I felt like it went very good. For how they were taught to do and execute the drills, they did amazing,” stated Mr. Heide, second year band teacher at AHS.

On Saturday, October 24, 2015, the high school band set out on a trip to state marching band in Hastings, Nebraska. The band is class A in music. In order for a class A school to receive a division one superior, the band must score 70 points or above. For the first time in 9 years, the Alliance High School Marching Band received a division one rating at state marching band. The band used to attend state every two years, but attending every year is now a tradition. Senior majorette Jazlyn Hausman stated, “The band gave their best performance at state and that’s exactly what we needed them to do. We had a good day, with a great performance and ended it with an emotional acceptance of our first superior after a 9 year excellent streak.”

The AHS band will now start their concert band season. The first concert will be the Christmas concert on December 14, 2015 at 7pm in the PAC. The band has a lot in store for the future!