Southern Thunder Band Competition musicians show fans what they can do
Oct. 18—PRINCETON — High school musicians and other performers from across the region came Monday to a Mercer County stadium and showed their families and other fans what they can do on a football field.
Southern Thunder XII brought bands from West Virginia and Virginia to the Anne S. Hunnicutt Stadium where they performed their halftime shows for judges and the audience up in the bleachers.
"So this is a band competition today. Southern Thunder XII," said Kelli Stanley, chair of the competition. "It's our twelfth for Princeton Senior High School, and we have 10 bands here this evening. They'll be judged on lots of different areas and at the end we'll have awards."
High school bands including Bluefield, Shady Spring, Fort Chiswell, Wyoming East, Westside, Webster County, Nelson County, Cabell Midland, James Monroe and PikeView participated in Monday's competition. The competition continued until late Monday evening and the results were not immediately available.
"Basically, they'll do their halftime performance that they do at football games that they've been preparing since July," Stanley said. "And they come and perform that, and we've got lots of very talented kids, musicians, we have dancers, we have all those things coming in. We have bands from West Virginia and Virginia here this evening. We're also part of what's called the Governor's Cup, in which we go to a big grand finale competition at the end of the month. You kind of earn points if you're in the band competition from West Virginia. Everybody can go on to that, but it's just that you get points to win a prize. A money prize."
Inclement weather had forced organizers to postpone the competition.
"But we're excited to be able to do this," Stanley said. "We had to reschedule it because of the hurricane. It was also going to be on a Saturday, so it's Monday evening and we're just excited to be able to showcase our kids and all their hard work."
Families traveled for miles so they could watch their children take to the field and cheer them on. Bob and Elaine Gentry of Shady Spring looked for a good vantage point in the bleachers. They had traveled to Princeton so they could watch their granddaughter Laken Gentry, a member of the Shady Spring High School band's color guard.
"Oh yes, we support the bands," Elaine Gentry said.
"They had a big win Saturday with Greenbrier East," Bob Gentry added.
Lisa Goode of Daniels was at Southern Thunder to watch her son and daughter, Maddox and Maddie Clark, perform with the Shady Springs band.
"We try to come as much as we possibly can," Goode said. "The kids always enjoy this competition. I've never gotten to come. They always say it's a lot of fun."
Ramona Keys of Princeton was cheering her son, Aiden, who performs on the PikeView High School drum line.
"The bands works really, really hard," Keys said. "They've been working since July 20. They really are a hardworking bunch of kids."
Nelson County High School Band's director, Scott Belcher, said he had been with the school for 20 years, but he had local ties as well. He graduated from Princeton Senior High School in 1973 and Concord College, now Concord University, in 1977. The band was looking forward to Southern Thunder.
"They love it, they love it," Belcher said. "It gives them confidence and they love watching the other bands. They love the competitions more than the football games."
John Campbell, who plays the mellophone for Nelson County, said he liked watching the other bands and their halftime shows.
"It's just nice to see other bands perform, to get the judges' comments and see how we can improve throughout the season," he said before the competition got underway.
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
