KBA Marching Band Championship

[RoyalShock]

I know only a few here have any interest in this but Saturday was the first annual Kansas Bandmasters Association high school marching band championships (it's about time!). Big shout out to Buhler for winning co-champion in a tie with Olathe North!

[shoxlax]

I know only a few here have any interest in this but Saturday was the first annual Kansas Bandmasters Association high school marching band championships (it's about time!). Big shout out to Buhler for winning co-champion in a tie with Olathe North!

Did they create a starship enterprise eating a Olathe North Eagle? That would've put them over the top I'm sure!

[RoyalShock]

Well, Buhler's show is "Apollo 13", but no Enterprise.

An interesting sidenote: Back in August the Cosmosphere had a big fundraiser, bringing in two of the Apollo 13 astronauts (Lovell and one who's name I don't recall), plus several from mission control for the 45th anniversary of the launch. The Buhler band got to play some of their show for them.

[WuShock16]

Well, Buhler's show is "Apollo 13", but no Enterprise.

An interesting sidenote: Back in August the Cosmosphere had a big fundraiser, bringing in two of the Apollo 13 astronauts (Lovell and one who's name I don't recall), plus several from mission control for the 45th anniversary of the launch. The Buhler band got to play some of their show for them.

Fred Haise must have been the other attendee (Bill Paxton's character from the movie). Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon's character) died many years ago.

[jdmee]

I know the marching band kids work hard on their shows. My son was in a band competition in St Louis this weekend, they finished 12th out of the 63 bands.
3 Kansas bands, Blue Valley, Blue Valley West, and Olathe East also competed in St Louis this weekend.

The band that won the event, Broken Arrow, from Tulsa is one of the top bands in the nation. They have a pretty awesome show.

[RoyalShock]

I know the marching band kids work hard on their shows. My son was in a band competition in St Louis this weekend, they finished 12th out of the 63 bands.
3 Kansas bands, Blue Valley, Blue Valley West, and Olathe East also competed in St Louis this weekend.

The band that won the event, Broken Arrow, from Tulsa is one of the top bands in the nation. They have a pretty awesome show.

So your son marches for Kickapoo? Just making finals at a BOA super regional is impressive! Congrats!

That's the level Buhler is trying to reach. They competed at the Renegade Review in Tulsa on October 10 as the only 1A band against Blue Springs, Owasso, Bixby, Coweta, Choctaw, Blue Valley, Blue Valley West and others. We reached the finals and finished 11th. I saw the scores from St. Louis this weekend and figure Buhler could finish 2nd in 1A and be reasonably competitive, but nowhere near making finals.

I don't think we'll ever have the money to compete with the top bands in the region. I've heard it costs close to $2000 per kid to be in the top Blue Springs marching band (yes, they have two - one for competitions, the other for football games, or so I've been told). They have semis with full band graphics just for hauling their equipment. With 240 members at $2k each, that's nearly half a million!

A Buhler parent can expect to spend about $50 for summer band camp and $50 for marching band enrollment fees. With 165 members at $50 ea, that's barely $8000.

[jdmee]

Thanks, He is with O'Fallon Township. Kickapoo finished 14th in finals.

Last year was our first year as Band Parents, I do have to say that this is not how I remember High School Marching Band.

They are not at the level of the Blue Springs, but are getting more competitive in the next tier of bands. Last year they made the semi-finals at the BOA Grand Nationals in Indy. They ended up finishing 20th I think. They were also invited and marched in the Parade of Roses.

It is pretty expensive, but not that much for us. We have a $450 uniform fee and a $100 marching enrollment fee, plus have multiple fund-raising events we have to volunteer for.


The crazy thing is the amount of time they spend with the band. They might get 2 weeks off during the summer break, the rest of the time is learning the parade and field show music. They also have a "band camp" for about 2 weeks prior to school, lasting from 8:00 am till 8:00 pm.

[RoyalShock]

That's what I get for assuming there were 12 finalists and looking at the last listed band.

Fortunately, at least so far, the district purchases new uniforms every 8-10 years. We have fundraisers but this year it's mostly to pay for their Disney trip over spring break.

Kansas (the KSHSAA) won't allow that much time together in the summer. Buhler does a week of "pre-camp", where they work mostly on music for roughly 30 hours. Then band camp week, which is 8am-8pm M-Th and 8-noon on Friday where they start putting the show on the field. Then when school starts, it's 7:30-9am every morning. So instead of getting two weeks off in the summer, we only get two weeks to practice. Hence, we can never be ready to perform the full show until early-to-mid October. At Tulsa on the 10th was our first competition and only the 2nd time they'd performed the full show. The first time was a football game the night before.

I don't remember marching band being this serious either. We went to one showcase a year back in the 80s.

Watching Blue Springs push 40 large props around the field, and four 72" flat-panel TVs with show graphics in front of the pit is rather disheartening.