The Press-Dispatch

September 11, 2019

The Press-Dispatch

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A-8 Local Wednesday, September 11, 2019 The Press-Dispatch Many Giveaways • Drawing for IU Football Tickets • Kids Games • Touch A Tractor Event • Drawing for Kubota Peddle Tractor OPEN HOUSE Saturday, Sept. 21 • 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. 83 Hwy 231 S., Jasper • 812-482-9696 • www.hopfoutdoor.com Ole Canoe Slider Company will be set up FOR LUNCH! 15% OFF All Echo Products Charger Brigade starts season on the right foot By Andy Heuring Pike Central Marching Band season has started. The Charger Brigade placed third in their class at Evansville Central on Saturday and won best percussion. It was the first contest of this season. "We are off to a good start," said Pike Central Band Director Chris Ashworth. He explained they scored 10 points higher this year than they did last year at this time of the season. Their performance this year is entitled Bent. The music for this year's show is written by John Fanin, direc- tor of bands at Murray State Uni- versity. Ashworth said he and his staff sat down and worked out the choreography for the show. "It is a conceptual show. The con- cept is everything bends. Music bends, props bend, uniforms even have a bend in them. We all sat down and tried to figure out how to make everything fit into that ti- tle," said Ashworth. The marching Chargers have worked hard already to get their performance where they want it. Ashworth said before school started, they had practiced for 165 hours. They started practicing late June and the week of the Fourth of July, they practiced Monday through Saturday getting ready for the parades. One July 22, they started prac- ticing nine hours a day Monday through Friday, and then did 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. On the last day of pre-school practices, they cele- brated with a senior night and a potluck supper, and had awards. Now they practice on Mondays and Thursdays, and compete on Saturdays. Evan McGuire is this season's drum major. "He is doing a great job. He has really stepped up with his leader- ship position. He helps kids be- fore school, give them rides to practice." McGuire also attended drum major camp this summer. "He did great," said Ashworth of McGuire at drum major camp. This year's band is about 50 - 50 juniors and seniors to under- classmen and eighth graders, with a total of 45 students participating. Ashworth said the seniors are do- ing a great job on providing lead- ership. "They are really stepping up and helping with leadership. They are calling section meetings and working on music on their own. I don't have to set that up for them. It shows they are buying in and want to be better than last year," said Ashworth. Their scores are also showing they want to get better. Ashworth said they were 1.5 points away from qualifying for the state fi- nals in their division of the Scho- lastic competition. He said they are in the C divi- sion, which is for schools of 500 to 1,000, which makes it difficult because Pike Central is only a few students over the 500 minimum and they are competing against schools like Boonville, which are barely under 1,000 students. The marching band competi- tions are judged on these six cri- teria: music individual, music en- semble, visual individual, visual ensemble, music effect and visu- al effect. He said the judges give specific comments on their likes and dis- likes of the competition. So follow- ing each contest, they are able to review the comments and then go to work on making that part of their competition better. Their goal is to keep working to make their scores better so they can post a score high enough to automatically qualify for the state finals. In their first performance, they were first or second in every cri- teria, except visual effects. They ended up missing second place by only 0.2 points. The rest of their performance schedule is as follows: Saturday, September 14, 7 p.m. at Castle; Saturday 21 at Evansville North TBA; Saturday, October 5 at Springs Valley TBA; Saturday, October 12 is the state prelims at Jasper. The state finals are set for Sat- urday, October 26 at Lawrence Central. Ashworth said they are grate- ful to all their supporters and peo- ple who have donated to help them with the season. Percussionists Courtney Tepe (11), Connor Bolin (10), Giovanni Wynn (12), Hunter Willis (12) and Alyx Powers (11) all perform at the halftime of Pike Central's football game last week. Above: Kena Cannon, in the Pike Central color guard, flips a rifle, releases it and then catches it during the Marching Chargers' performance at halftime of a recent Charger football game. Left: Freshman alto saxophone player Adam Dill march- es during a recent performance. Kasey Doerner, Adam Dill, Loren Huck and Will Wright play while marching during a re- cent performance.

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