Photo provided by AC/GC Band Director Kyra Babcock

The Adair – Casey / Guthrie Center High School Marching Band traveled to Creston this past Saturday, and came away with the top spot in their class.

Band Director Kyra Babcock says that for the third year in a row, the Chargers were the Class 1A first place winner. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio that last year their score was only three points ahead of the second place band from Lenox, and that this year the difference was 30 points. Babcock shares one of the reasons that they were able to do this was because they had more members.

“The same four bands competed in Class 1A last year as this year. So we had the same competition, and the difference is that our size of the band has grown. We were like a 29 strong band last year. This year we had 40. So we did an increase in numbers. Fourteen of our marchers are freshmen. So getting 14 kids to march like upperclassmen, we spent time trying to fine tune everything.”

Babcock mentions there are some pros and cons to having a larger ensemble. She notes that one of the pros is the band sounds and looks better when everything is going perfectly. Conversely, Babcock states the cons include some of the newer members may not be used to marching while playing, and others may be out of step. Overall, Babcock is proud of how the band performed, and is looking forward to their next competition.