Mitchell marching band places third at first competition
Of the 105 kids in the band, 32 are new.By: Candy DenOuden, The Daily Republic
- Marching band in Marshall
The Mitchell High School Marching Band placed third in its first competition Saturday in Marshall, Minn.
Marching Band Director Ryan Stahle said the band scored 73.8 on a 100-point scale, which gave them a third-place finish out of the approximately 20 bands that competed.
“We’re very happy with the way things turned out,” Stahle said in an interview with The Daily Republic Sunday. Stahle said this is the first time Mitchell has competed in Marshall since 2008, when he estimated the band scored in the mid-60s.
“It definitely was an improvement for us,” he said.
He said all of the teams that participate in the competition receive a framed gold record engraved with each participating band’s name and placing. Stahle said it’s a difficult competition because it is very early in the band season. An added challenge for Mitchell is the number of new students in the band this year.
He said of the 105 kids in the band, 32 are new — the most newbies he’s seen in his decade-long tenure with the marching band.
“Which is a great problem to have,” he said. Though Stahle said he was not surprised the band did well, because of the early date and his young group, he didn’t necessarily expect a third-place finish.
“I wasn’t expecting to do as well as they did, but it’s a great group of kids,” Stahle said. “We’ve been working really hard since the end of July.”
Mitchell’s marching band will compete the next three weekends, starting this Saturday with the Tri-State Band Festival in Laverne, and the Big Sioux Review in Brandon Valley. And, this time, third place just won’t quite cut it.
“We won the Big Sioux Review last year in our class so we’re hoping to do that again this year,” Stahle said.
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