By: Lizzi Clayton, Gazebo Assistant Editor

The Spirit of Stratford Marching Band and Color Guard placed first overall in the Single-A Band division and earned a rating of “Excellent” in their festival, the Wolverine Classic, on September 24.

Ms. Laura Voss said the band is very proud of its achievement.

“I was very pleased with their performance,” she said. “I think it’s the best they’ve ever performed the show.”

Judging is done as a festival and competition. In the festival, different parts of the band are given ratings on a scale of 1-5 (1 being the best). The band won an overall rating of 2.

The competition pits the scores of bands against each other to declare a winner of divisions.
The color guard and percussion joined drum major Gracie Childers to all take home titles of second place for Single-A bands.

“We knew going into the competition that it was going to be very hard,” said Voss. “But we did really well and five out of the eight judges gave us superiors so I was very pleased.”