Amarillo-area bands earn high marks in Texas state marching contest
SAN ANTONIO — Four Amarillo-area marching bands competed at the UIL State Marching Band Championships this week at the Alamodome, with three of them earning a spot among the top 10 high school bands of their size in Texas.
Panhandle High School and all three Canyon ISD high schools — Canyon High, Randall and first-year school West Plains — represented the greater Amarillo area at the contest, which spanned Monday morning through Wednesday night and included 83 2A, 4A and 6A bands from every corner of the state.
The Pride of Panhandle marched against 17 other schools in the 2A preliminary round Tuesday morning. Panhandle placed second in the prelims with their samurai-themed show to advance to the final round of competition Tuesday evening, dropping a few spots but still finishing fifth place in the state.
Besides Panhandle, 2A schools that competed are Anson, Ben Bolt-Palito Blanco, Bogata Rivercrest, Charlotte, Clarksville, Forsan, Ganado, Hale Center, Harper, Honey Grove, Mason, New Deal, Santo, Shiner, Sundown, Tenaha and Valley Mills.
Shiner High School took home the 2A state title.
Wednesday morning and early afternoon, Canyon, Randall and West Plains competed in the 4A preliminary round, which consisted of 23 schools total. Randall and Canyon both placed in the top 10 spots in prelims to advance to finals; West Plains finished 14th overall in the state in the school's first year in existence.
Canyon and Randall marched Wednesday night in the final round. Canyon finished sixth in the final round and Randall placed 10th.
In addition to the Canyon schools, participants in class 4A included Alvarado, Anna, Bridge City, Burnet, Canton, Celina, China Spring, Comal Davenport, Corpus Christi Calallen, Floresville, Gatesville, Hidalgo Early College, Kaufman, Lumberton, Paris, Paris North Lamar, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City Grulla, Springtown and Sulphur Springs.
Celina High School was named state champion in 4A.
Each band at the state championships qualified for the contest by earning high marks in an area competition earlier in the season. Schools only have the opportunity to compete in the state contest every other year, as 1A, 3A and 5A contests alternate years with 2A, 4A and 6A.
All results from the state marching band competition can be found at smbc.uiltexas.org.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo-area bands earn high marks in Texas state marching contest
