SIOUX FALLS, S.D (KELO) – Lincoln High School’s Marching Patriots are getting recognition after ranking in the finals of the national Bands of America competition, just one month before marching in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The Marching Patriots got ninth place out of 71 bands across the country at the competition in St. Louis, Missouri on Saturday. Lincoln, with 215 students, was the only school from South Dakota that made it to the final 14.
“This last weekend was such a blast. I had so much fun,” senior mellophone player Tessa Blom said. “It’s so exciting to get to go up there and compete with a whole other level of competition. Like there’s bands there that are best in the nation and we get to just be there and experience that and compete against them, it’s so much fun.”
The other states represented in the finals were Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri. According to Assistant Director Drew Balta, the chief judge of the competition spoke with the band before finals. She told them how impressive their accomplishments are, especially as a smaller school from South Dakota.
“She said, ‘If your school was located in Texas or in Indiana, it would make sense for you guys to be what you’re doing, but the fact that you’re doing what you’re doing from a state where marching band isn’t really known for being at this level,…’ she just said you should be commended and our community should be commended for what is happening at Sioux Falls, Lincoln,” Balta added.
Henry Oppenheimer, a junior saxophone player, said the band has been working extra hard this season to put on a quality field show, which is fittingly themed around the Big Apple, while also preparing for their Macy’s performance at the end of November.
“This year has been quite a lot of work, but it’s been really, really lovely,” Oppenheimer said. “The people in the band are amazing and then the rehearsal hours, they can feel really long, but then they go by so quickly and it’s just nice to spend all that time with everyone doing an activity.”
Balta noted that the national attention from the Bands of America finals and upcoming Macy’s performance wouldn’t be possible without the support from the Sioux Falls and South Dakota community.
“It’s been a lot of accolades, one after another throughout the course of the year, but the community that this program offers to the kids and to the families, that’s the cool thing,” Balta said. “It’s not just the kids making us proud, it’s the kids making the whole community proud. All the time and work that they’ve put in, that will extend to New York here in a month.”
The band’s director, Dan Carlson, said an additional 600 faculty, chaperones and parents from South Dakota are expected to be in New York to support the Marching Patriots during the parade.
They will be in New York from Sunday, Nov. 24 through Saturday, November 30. In addition to the parade, the band will also be doing a performance at the Central Park Bandshell, see a Broadway play and the Radio City Rockettes, as well as the 9/11 Memorial Museum and a cruise around the Hudson River.
