From fourth to first.

The Bullitt East Marching band just earned first place at their second competition of the year after placing fourth in their first competition.

The Bullitt East marching band competed in their second competition at Ohio County High School last Saturday and came home with first place in their class after a great performance. A day before the competition the band played at the Bullitt East home game cheering on the football team to their victory against Bullitt Central and performed their show at halftime.

At the band’s second competition last Saturday, they competed against 16 other bands at Ohio County. “I think the performance at the competition was extremely strong. I could feel the emotion and the focus everyone put on the game,” said senior percussionist Diego Gonzalez. The band had a strong performance through a three and a half minute show, giving all their effort to do the best they could for the judges after practicing hard to refine the show. The hard work paid off as the band was rewarded with first place for their performance.

At first the band thought they received third place at the end competition when the announcers announced what each band placed in their class due to an error made by the announcers. But soon after, as the band was loading onto their busses to go home, they were met with a surprise when told by the director, Jason Novak, that the band actually placed first in their class, not third. “I was pretty excited because for me at least, it was definitely my best individual performance,” said senior mellophone player Connor Mitchell.

A day before the competition, on Friday, the band played for the Bullitt East football team for the second time at the home game against Bullitt Central. Throughout the game the band played various pep songs to help hype up the team and the Redzone. At halftime, the band performed their show for the community which made good practice for the competition the next day. “On Friday, we were a little scattered in our focus,” said Gonzalez. Gonzalez believes the performance on Friday could have been better due to a lack of focus, which wasn’t a problem at the competition, and small mistakes that were fixed for the competition the next day. 

You can see the band perform at their next competition at Pleasure Ridge Park High School Sept. 25.