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Highest achievement in the quest toward Sweepstakes
On Tuesday, October 15, the North Lamar High School Band competed in the Region 4 UIL Marching Contest in Mt Pleasant.
“This was the last and biggest contest for the NLHS Marching Band, and they did not let up for it either,” said NLHS Associate Band Director Jason R. Smith.
For marching bands, the UIL Marching Contest is the first step in achieving the Sweepstakes Award from UIL. Sweepstakes is awarded when a high school band program earns superior ratings in Marching, Concert and Sight Reading. The Concert and Sight Reading portion of the achievement is completed in the spring semester.
This marks the 30th consecutive year the NLHS Marching Band has earned Superior Ratings for their marching performance at UIL.
“It has been a great show to work on this fall, and the students have put in a lot of time and effort to bring together a really great performance,” said NLHS Band Director Randy Jones. “UIL Marching, Concert, and Sightreading is our STAAR test for the band. We are judged against a standard.”
Explaining the grading system, Jones said a ‘1’, 1st Division or Superior rating, is the highest achievement that is awarded. From there, bands can be awarded a 2, 3, 4 or 5 rating based on their performance with five being the poorest.
Three judges watched all the bands from Region 4 Class 2A, 4A, and 5A on Tuesday and gave them ratings. Class 3A bands performed on a different day.
“We earned Superior from all three judges for our performance,” said Jones.
The Band is under the direction of Randy Jones, Jason R. Smith, Marcus Lutz, and Cristian Gomez, with assistance from Gina Ervin and Chris Garza.