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Azle High School’s Marching Green Pride band took first place in both the preliminary and final rounds during Saturday’s UIL Area A Marching Contest in Odessa, earning a return trip to San Antonio’s Alamodome for next Tuesday’s 4A state finals.
Azle’s top rating out of the 20 first-division bands in the contest vindicates months of work by more than 200 students along with directors, aides and a host of parent volunteers. The effort that began with rehearsals in August and continued through pre-dawn drills, rain and flu landed Azle’s band among the top 25 of more than 250 4A bands in Texas. “It’s really been a pleasure to see the band progress to this level,” director Ross Grant said. He gave this year’s freshman class a big share of the credit. “It’s a pretty young band that is marching particularly well,” he said. “Big bands like ours don’t usually do that.” A big factor in that is the drum line and drum majors, he noted.
“When your drum line is really doing a great job, they give the band a steady pulse,” he said. “And the drum majors are conducting well.” And the colorguard, he noted, is performing the best he’s seen in his seven years in Azle. “There are a lot of new students in that group, but lots of things are working well,” he said. “Their equipment looks nice, the colors, the costumes. It all works.” Certainly it all worked Saturday at Odessa’s Ratliff Stadium, site of the filming of Friday Night Lights. This time, on a perfect fall night, the Azle band was the brightest light in a field of top-notch bands. One of seven UIL Areas in Texas, Area A stretches from El Paso to Amarillo to the edge of Fort Worth. Five bands from Azle’s football district – Azle, Boswell, Saginaw, Springtown and Brewer – qualified for the the Area round by earning 1s at Regional the previous Saturday. Boswell and Saginaw will join Azle at the state competition, where 25 bands from all over Texas will take part in “one of the most competitive band contests in the world” according to Dr. Grant. On Saturday, bands performed from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Azle placed first in the prelims, then accomplished the difficult feat of repeating that in the finals, even though the judges’ assignments changed. Adjudicators for the contest were Jeff Laird of Aldine, George Strickland of Austin, Philip Alvarado of Rowlett, Rick Baker of Arlington and Charles Aguillon of Georgetown In his finals critique, Alvarado commented, “Great brass performance! Balance and blend are excellent. Effective use of woodwinds throughout show. Very musical presentation!” Aguillon said “Wow! Great marching fundamentals. Very well taught and executed. Very strong visual package – your sets were strong. Awesome variety! Terrific use of colorguard. Very entertaining show!” Strickland led his comments with, “Great marching execution today. Outstanding attention to individual detail. Super design and flow – everything is well staged.” |
