Great Second Place Finish! . . . Wait… What?!?!

Hang on to your hats folks, it was a wild one this past weekend! On Friday night, Spirit of Woodlan performed during halftime of the Varsity football game against Culver Academy. The game started a half-hour later than usual, so the kids got a bit of a breather! It paid off, because this week was far less hectic getting ready with fewer missing black socks, gloves, etc. It was an exciting night, because Spirit performed Part 3 of their show for the first time and broke out more new visuals! The field was also decorated with shiny new Cleopatra screens for the pit and an Egyptian boat for the stage. Wow! They had a fantastic performance!!

Aren't the new "Cleopatra" screens beautiful???

Part 3 was incredible!!

From the East Allen County School's Facebook page

On Saturday, the students arrived early for a short practice before loading buses and heading to Homestead High School for their Fall Festival of Bands Invitational 2021. The forecast called for rain and storms for most of the evening, but we all held out hope that Spirit could perform before the rain arrived. The students and staff enjoyed a lunch of breakfast sandwiches, muffins, cinnamon rolls, yogurt, and fruit. They had time to work in a game of Ninja before getting dressed in uniforms and rolling out to warm up.

These girls wanted their picture taken with the huge fire in the background... Either another band has some REALLY incredible Visuals, or there was something big nearby on fire!

They love playing Ninja!

Spirit of Woodlan was the last band in our class to perform at 2:15pm. The storm clouds hovered above, but it only sprinkled during their performance. The band and guard knocked it out of the park with their best performance yet!! They sounded amazing and the *HITS* in Part 3 got the crowd fired up! It’s safe to say that all of us adults were grinning ear to ear! WOW!! The soloists played beautifully, and everyone did an awesome job all around! Aesthetically, the show was gorgeous! As the kids left the field, they KNEW that they had nailed it! Excitement was high as they rushed off the field and waited for the awards program from the end of the track. On the pit crew, we raced stage props back to the trailers to save them from the rain that was rapidly approaching! Tarps came out and covered the pit instruments. Us “Feather Moms”, as Mr. Slattery referred to us (I think I prefer “Plumettes”!), snatched the plumes off their hats and tossed them under a tarp on a cart just as the rain really started to come down. Time for awards…

Rain, rain, go away!!!

So, this is the part of the day where the fun *really* began! I’m not sure if it was April Fool’s Day, or Groundhog’s Day, or even Mercury in Retrograde. Whatever it was, the Award show was *something else*! LOL! Our Drum Major, Brock Fuller, accepted the caption awards for Best Music and Best General Effect. We did not win the caption award for Best Visual. Now on to placement… The announcer called out, “Class D, Second Place.. Woodlan High School” and there was an audible gasp from the crowd. Hmm?? What a disappointment, after Spirit had just performed SUCH an incredible show. Well, better luck next time!

As we scurried in the rain back to our buses and trailers, there was a general pondering of “What in the world happened?” Something did not seem right, as we had won Best Music, which accounts for 60% of the overall performance. Had we really messed up in the other areas so much to have got 2nd place? There was some scrambling done behind the scenes, and it was revealed that there was a mess-up. A BIG MESS-UP. As it turns out, the Spirit of Woodlan actually came in FIRST PLACE, by a margin of almost 6 points! We also won all three caption awards: Best Music, Best General Effect, AND Best Visual. The kids were ecstatic!!!! Now the awards matched what they knew in their hearts – that they did an incredible job this weekend! Sadly, the “first-place” band actually came in last-place. On the walk out, we talked to some Triton parents that said, “We were so excited to actually win something for once!” Eek! What a stinky thing to have happen to them!

Several people have referred to the day as Groundhog’s Day as *THE EXACT SAME THING* happened two years ago at Homestead! This was before my day, but I hear that Woodlan also won our class and the caption awards in 2019 but again was not represented that way during the awards show. What in the world? The icing on the cake this weekend, which you just have to laugh about, is that all of our caption awards this year… They say “2019”! Maybe they had extras lying around that they wanted to use up? We all just laughed and celebrated anyhow!

Look at our 2019 Awards!

On to next week! What adventures await? Stay tuned! The Spirit of Woodlan will again perform at Homestead High School for the ISSMA Open Class D Invitational on Saturday, October 9, 2021. We will perform first in our class at 3:20pm, with the Awards at 4:05. Going forward, bands will only be given ratings (gold, silver, bronze, etc) and distinctions, rather than placements, until State Finals. Please come out and support these amazing kids! Cheer loudly for them, it really does boost their spirits and help them perform their best! See you then!