The Pea Ridge High School Marching Band achieved a first division "Superior" rating at the ASBOA Region 6 Marching Assessment on Oct. 11, for the third year in a row, as well as the third time in the school's history. The event was held at Rogers High School where bands from Gravette, Berryville, Mountain Home, Harrison, Cotter, Green Forest, Gentry, Yellville-Summit, Rogers and Bentonville all performed for a panel of judges. All three judges awarded the band a superior rating, which is the highest score a band can achieve at region assessment.
The band's show theme this fall has been entitled "Out of the Darkness." It is a concept that has left some of the interpretation to the audience. The band opened the show with a short poem and interpretive dance by sophomore Breanna Brungardt in the band's color guard as the band played Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors." The opening tune featured a duet between sophomore Ashley Hansen on mellophone and junior Quentin Mathis on trumpet. The band's second tune was "Colorblind" by the Counting Crows and featured several students in the band, including senior Dominique Burwell on flute, junior Prissy Hall in the front percussion ensemble on marimba, freshman Holden Oneal on vibraphone and glockenspiel, as well as another mellophone and trumpet duet by sophomore Jose Zaragosa and junior Colby Willett respectively, and ended with sophomore Cailey Bowie on clarinet. The band closed with Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun," which displayed a change in uniform for the color guard adding bright pink's and yellows enhancing the theme of the show.
War Eagle Classic
The Blackhawk Band has had a very busy month of October participating in four competitions, including their own that was hosted at Blackhawk Stadium Saturday afternoon on Oct. 8. It was the third year for Pea Ridge to host a marching contest in the new stadium facilities that has been attracting many area bands to attend, including Rogers-Heritage, Muskogee, Okla., Nevada, Mo., Gentry, Green Forest, Cotter, Gravette, Berryville, Lincoln, Prairie Grove, Paris and Greenland. After Pea Ridge hosted their own contest, they attended the War Eagle Classic at Heritage High School the following Saturday, Oct. 15. The band was awarded the top percussion score in their class as well as outstanding soloist for Cailey Bowie on clarinet.
NWA Invitation, Siloam Springs
The band's final competition for the fall was at the NWA Invitation Contest at Siloam Springs on Saturday, Oct. 22. The band competed in their class as well as against the other 16 bands that attended and won first place in their class as well as outstanding color guard. The highlight of the day was being selected to perform in the contest's finals competition that night for scoring in the top 8 bands from the preliminary performances. It was a huge accomplishment that had only been achieved once in the band's history, which occurred in 1997 when the band, under retired director David Dickey, was selected to finals at the same contest. The band performed at 8 p.m. and was the only small band in the top eight lineup. The rest of the bands were all from 5A, 6A and 7A schools, including Van Buren, Conway, Springdale, Springdale Har-ber, Greenwood, Bentonville West and Alma. It was a great experience and honor for the Pea Ridge Band to have the opportunity to perform along-side much larger bands with anywhere from 100 to 250 students. The band ranked eighth place after the finals competition was completed.
Veteran's Assembly
The band will now turn their focus to the annual Veteran's Day Assembly and Winter Concert, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, in the high school gymnasium that will also feature the beginning band, seventh- and eighth-grade Middle school band and High School Jazz Band.
The band program is under the direction of Kevin Hume, Matt McCool and color guard director Sara Beth Eubanks.
Community on 11/02/2016