EDUCATION

Marching Tigers just 'grand' at Metamora, like rest of season

Doug Boock
The ROWVA High School Marching Tigers band claimed numerous awards, including a Grand Champion honor, at Saturday’s Metamora Parade and Field Invitational. Members of the band and color guard include (front, from left) Sawyer Baker, Whitney Pemberton, Cody Appell, Patrick Harlan, Chris Reynolds, David Hazlett, Andrew Erickson, John O’Connor and Jordan Nelson; (second row, from left) Yannick Meincke, Jack Oller, Lindsay Reddett, Nicole Neson, Jessica Krans, Erin Naslund, Shauna Ables, Sarah Worrell, Kim Litchfield, Auty Rohweder, Ashley LaGrow and band director Justin Haynes; (third row, from left) Kris England, Victoria Wheeler, Scott Erickson, Erin Ekstedt, Sarah Bjorling, Keith King and Kyle England; (fourth row, from left) Barak Schafer, Steven Reynolds, Kevin England, Patrick King, Matt Smith, Alyssa Saylor, Jessica McEwen, Kaitlin Henson and Kevin Maloy; (back row, from left) Katie Holland, Erica Vedell, Brittany Munson, Sarah DeSchepper, Megan Steck, Miranda Malone, Kelsey Kovacik, Emily DeSchepper, Cassie Abel and Chelsea Morgan.

The ROWVA High School Marching Tigers band continued a very strong competition season on Saturday, Oct. 11, hauling in a bevy of awards at the Metamora Parade and Field Invitational, which included many large schools.

The Marching Tigers, under the direction of Justin Haynes, competed in the Class 2A portion of the parade and field competiton. They won four first-place awards in Class 2A Parade Competition: Best Drum Major, Best Percussion, Best Color Guard and First Place in Class 2A Parade Competition.

They also won five top honors in Class 2A Field Competition: Best Drum Major, Best Winds, Best Color Guard, Crowd Pleaser, and First Place in Class 2A Field Competition.

In addition, ROWVA won Grand Champion for Class 1A, 2A, and 3A. That category had 17 bands competing.

The Marching Tigers also won Overall Best Parade School for classes 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A and 5A. They defeated 27 other bands to win that honor.

The Tigers’ big day at Metamora is part of an outstanding competitve year for the band. Earlier in the season, at the Washington Invitational, they competed in the parade portion and won Best Drum Major, Best Auxiliary, and first place in Class A. At the Monmouth Prime Beef Parade they won their class and were named best overall.

ROWVA will compete at the Western Illinois University homecoming parade this weekend and will conclude their season by competing at the University of Illinois Marching Band Competition on Oct. 25 in Champaign-Urbana.