Plymouth-Canton Marching Band Shines in Regional Championship

While the Rocks Football team was winning its third game of the season on Saturday (Go Rocks!), another team was in route to the Pontiac Silverdome for a big battle on the turf.

The Plymouth-Canton Marching Band was the hometown favorite in a two-part competition called the Bands of America Regional Championship held in Pontiac.  The early part of the day was a preliminary competition where seventeen of the best marching bands traveled in from multiple states. Eight bands from Michigan, four from Illinois, three from Ohio, and one from Georgia and Nebraska, all competed in the preliminary competition.

Plymouth-Canton’s band reported to at 7:30 a.m. to prepare for the 16-hour day.  After a three-hour practice, the band members returned to the school to eat lunch, change into their uniforms, and load the semi-trailer and trucks with all the equipment, large band instruments, and props. Parent volunteers are on hand to support the band staff with all the logistics associated with such a large-scale competition. By 1 p.m., five PCCS school buses and two trucks were in route to the Silverdome.

Preliminary Competition

Our marchers took the field at 3:30 and performed their 8-minute show entitled, "Ancient Gardens of Babylon." In addition to complex drill being performed by the 180-member band, three strong music pieces were unveiled for the audience as the football field slowly transpired into a colorful garden of flowers.

The color guard, wearing pale yellow costumes, seem to float among the musicians carrying flower shaped umbrellas that help make the garden come alive. The show ended with a huge ovation from the audience, many adorned in the bright yellow signature color of the Plymouth-Canton Music Boosters.  As usual, Plymouth’s fans are the easiest to spot at any competition with the bright yellow wear-ables, courtesy of Plymouth’s own Heritage Logo Works.

After all 17 bands competed, the audience was entertained by the Detroit Pistons Drumline who really know how to have fun with drums. Then all the drum majors from the bands were asked to take the field. The table with the preliminary awards was front and center with the drum majors arched around it. Always excited, the announcer began to list the top awards by school classification. There are four distinct school classifications, all based on enrollment size of the school grades 10 – 12.  Plymouth-Canton of course, is in the largest school classification, class AAAA.

Early recognition starts the day off right

The announcers started the awards out by naming the highest achievements in Outstanding Music Performance, Outstanding Visual Performance, and Outstanding General Effect.  All three caption awards were won by Plymouth-Canton Educational Park Marching Band. After the other three categories were announced, the top 3 placements were named for each classification. The announcement for the AAAA Class Champions was made: the Plymouth-Canton Marching Band! It was an exciting afternoon with our drum majors bringing back three caption trophies and the big championship trophy for our class.

At this point, the announcer named the top 10 bands that are invited back this evening for the final championship competition where class is no longer relevant.  Plymouth-Canton is named as a finalist along with the other following Michigan bands:  Ferndale HS, Rockford HS, Jenison HS, and Reeths-Puffer HS. Then the stadium is emptied and the kids and parents all break for dinner. Our kids are fed 225 submarine sandwiches that were lovingly prepared that morning by volunteer parents then stored in coolers to remain fresh for the dinner break.

Part II of a very long day

After a random draw, our kids learn that they will compete 8th in the rotation of 10 bands, which equates to 9:30 p.m. Leading up to their competition time, there’s eating, playing, and lots of homework to be done to fill the time. A Frisbee can often be seen flying around when Plymouth-Canton is on break. By 8:30, the band is redressed and warming up for their big final performance.

Once again the band prepares to take the field for finals competition. As the band, color guard, and crew wheel out the props and take their places, a giant cheer comes from the crowd:  “Give me a P – P;  Give me a C – C; Give me a M – M; Give me a B – B;  What’s it spell?  PCMB, PCMB! Go Plymouth!”  In addition to the parent cheers, there’s a flurry of yellow pompons and silver stars being waved for the kids to see. (The silver stars is a long time tradition where a previous band director at Plymouth noticed his band performed better at night – so the legend began that the director told his students to “Look for the moon; play for the moon; reach for the moon and the stars.”  A moon and stars are usually brought to any indoor band competition to replicate that evening sky.)

A finale worth remembering

After another fantastic performance, the band members were ushered up the stairs to sit and watch the remaining competition. After the tenth band finished, the Class A champions performed in exhibition for the crowd. Then it was time for the big grand finale, the awards ceremony. A Bands of America award ceremony can be compared to a small closing ceremony for the Summer Olympics. All ten bands are ushered onto the field in single military line fashion. When all ten bands are situated across all 100 yards, it’s just a big beautiful explosion of color and talent.  Every kid out there deserves the standing ovation each receives. It takes hours and hours of rehearsals, lessons, and practice to get to this juncture.

What made this award ceremony even better than usual? Our very own Plymouth-Canton Drumline was invited to serenade the entrance of all ten bands with a drumline cadence. (Remember in blog one I shared my son is a snare drum player.)  Well, this Mom was quite excited to see her son and fellow drummers front and center for the big entrance. In fact, we Moms were so excited, we moved down to be right in front to take prime photos of the hardworking drummers.

Before any new awards were named, the announcer recognized all four class Champions from the earlier competition. Each of our Plymouth-Canton band members received a silver medallion medal, which was distributed by the Plymouth-Canton staff. Now was the moment for the final placements to be announced, starting with the tenth place band. Each band announced also had their score broadcast for those keeping track in their programs. As the 3rd place band was announced, still no mention of Plymouth-Canton. But, very soon there after we learned that our band came in second overall with a score of 74.7. The final regional champion of the day was Harrison High School band who traveled all the way from Kennesaw, Georgia with a score of 78.9. They were an impressive band with what looked to be over 220 members on the field.

Overall, it was an outstanding day for our Plymouth-Canton Marching Band family.  After sixteen long hours, the band returned to the high school at about 12:40 a.m.  As tradition has it, the car horns are blaring to greet the five buses. As kids disembark, the parent supporters line up and applaud each and every medal-adorned student who travels back into the school to drop off their equipment and uniform. And despite the early morning time, a stressful week at school, and the tremendous day of hard work and spent energy, there’s always a smile on the face of each band member as they walk past. It was a good day indeed.