"Tiny Band, Big Heart"

December 1, 2015 1:29 PM

The 24-person marching band from Rotan, Texas, made it to the Division 1A state finals (i.e., "State") for the first time this year.

For comparison’s sake, you may enjoy watching the country’s largest marching band (from Allen High School, mentioned in the article), this year’s 5A champion (from Cedar Park), or last year’s 6A champion, from Flower Mound.

Here’s Rotan’s performance from the preliminary round of State this year. Sadly, Rotan didn’t make it through to the 1A final round. The Division 1A winner was the Ropes High School marching band.

posted by mudpuppie (4 comments total)

division and state were always so much fun to participate in.
posted by nadawi at 1:54 PM on December 1, 2015

That's some really impressive choreography while playing the songs well, especially given everyone's relative lack of experience:

It was a huge accomplishment for Rotan’s 24 marchers, considering the size of the school and the inexperience of both the students and their director, Joshua Bailey. In his first year leading the young group, which includes multiple eighth grade students, he’s had a lot of adjusting to do, he said.

(And I was hoping Rotan, TX was closer to Raton, NM, but it's more than 400 miles away.)
posted by filthy light thief at 2:16 PM on December 1, 2015

My daughter plays in the front ensemble of our town's 5A band. I'm not sending this video to her, because she'd probably want to go there and offer her marimba services. Bands without front ensembles make her heart hurt.

I am, however, sending this video to my husband. He's never played an instrument in his life, played football in high school...but thanks to our kid, he's now a HS marching band superfan. Before we went to regionals this year, he watched dozens of shows on YouTube, and looked up season stats as best he could. It was like sitting next to Band ESPN.

I'm pretty sure next year he's going to talk me into going for the entire 15 hour day competition...classes 1A through 6 Festival. (To be honest, I won't mind much.)
posted by gnomeloaf at 6:38 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

My son is a freshman in the Flower Mound band linked above that won the 6A competition last year, and having come from a small town with a band the size of Rotan's (but without their obviously first-class program), I had NO idea what real marching band life was like. These kids put in a staggering amount of work-- it has been impressive to see them give it their all (no exaggeration) and love every minute of it.

(Also, I'm a dork and might have screamed when I saw his band linked on the blue. Yeaaahhhh!!!! Couldn't wait to show my boy-- and we watched all the videos together. <3)
posted by ebee at 7:44 AM on December 2, 2015